From: Mar Gavriel (http://margavriel.blogspot.com)
Wait, so let me get this straight-- according to your analysis, people who kill themselves in order to perpetuate life and the Tree of Life are evil, but people who kill themselves in order to end life and bring on death are not evil. Oh, wait, no-- evil was mysticengineer's word, not yours. You, O taylweaver, used the expression tragically misguided, and has a misplaced sense of religious fervor. So are they misguided, or evil? When people have values very different from ours, yet they are very loyal to them, should we feel a certain sense of resipect for them, or only total disgust? I have not done a study of this, nor taken a survey, but I would imagine that the language that we use, evil vs. misguided, has an effect on how we view the perpetrators of a suicide bombing. (Of course, even if we have an amount of respect for them, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't put attempted suicide bombers in jail for life; after all, they're a threat to society, whether or not we have any respect for them.)
And with regard to religious fervor: it is often very difficult to tell the difference between mental illness and religious fervor. To take a benign example, when Rav Scheinberg wears 300 pairs of tzitzis at a time (which, for some reason, he does every day), people say that is incredibly holy and spiritual. If I were to do it (which I wouldn't), people would say that I was mentally ill. Is Rav Scheinberg mentally ill? I don't know the man, and know very little about him; however, from what I have heard, it sounds like he is fully mentally competent. This whole issue of insanity vs. religious fervor becomes much more complicated when we add the third factor of harming others (or possibly oneself).
I realize that in this post, I have not really answered any questions coherently, but only raised further questions. Let this be food for thought, which we can ponder over Shabbos.
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Re: Suicide Bombers, & Suicide
Date: 2005-07-15 01:15 pm (UTC)Wait, so let me get this straight-- according to your analysis, people who kill themselves in order to perpetuate life and the Tree of Life are evil, but people who kill themselves in order to end life and bring on death are not evil. Oh, wait, no-- evil was
And with regard to religious fervor: it is often very difficult to tell the difference between mental illness and religious fervor. To take a benign example, when Rav Scheinberg wears 300 pairs of tzitzis at a time (which, for some reason, he does every day), people say that is incredibly holy and spiritual. If I were to do it (which I wouldn't), people would say that I was mentally ill. Is Rav Scheinberg mentally ill? I don't know the man, and know very little about him; however, from what I have heard, it sounds like he is fully mentally competent. This whole issue of insanity vs. religious fervor becomes much more complicated when we add the third factor of harming others (or possibly oneself).
I realize that in this post, I have not really answered any questions coherently, but only raised further questions. Let this be food for thought, which we can ponder over Shabbos.
Until then, have fun teaching.