Is Suicide a Sin?

Several weeks ago, I lost one of the few people whom I would consider to be my friend. I have known him for a little over a year, and thought we were in different platoons, we were in the same company while deployed to Afghanistan for twelve months. During that year, he was often in my room with my squad, and we would talk, watch movie, clean our weapons, ext. I do not normally call out to people who I know when I see them on the street, but every time I saw him I never hesitated to call out his name and take a few minutes talking to him. The last time I spoke to him, he was very happy. He told me that he was enjoying his job, and was even going to spend a few hours working after he was supposed to get off. He was also excited to hear of my recent career choices, and was glad that I was moving on for better things in life. This is the second person in my life who I lost to suicide.

After his death, I did not speak to anyone about it, but for those I worked with that also knew him. That is until yesterday. I was finally able to find some closure at a memorial service held in his honor. What I found so powerful about it was not the service itself, but its timing. For those of you who do not know, yesterday was the first Day of Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year, and in Jewish culture, the next day is marked not by the sun rising, but by the sun setting. This means that the memorial was held in the last moments of the old year, and ended very close to the new one.

When I noted this on Face Book, my mother asked what the Jews believe about suicide. Well, that is an interesting question. Although I consider myself to be Jewish, and have seen Jewish funerals, I honestly did not know what they believe about what happens to suicide victims. Personally, I do not believe that it is an automatic sentence to Hell, but I have never heard what the Jews have to say about it.

So let us find out. First of all, when people think about taking life in the Bible –Yes I know that I am talking about the Jews, so I should use the Torah or Ta-NaKh, but the they are both a part of the Bible, so I am going to use the word Bible just so I can include everything- the immediately think of what is arguably the most famous of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not kill. This passage has been used countless times for people who think that War is wrong, or are against the Death penalty. Now what they do not understand is that in Hebrew, there are two words for “Kill” I tried to find them, but I could only get the original Hebrew writing, and not a phonetical translation, I apologize. But the difference between the two words in important. One simply means to Kill, or to justifiably end life. The other specifically means “Murder.” Which would be to purposefully end a life without justification. Now the Hebrew used in the Ten Commandments properly translated would be “Though shalt not murder.” The scriptures give plenty of times where killing is justified. In times of War being one. Now this is very important to my point as Jews do not believe that Suicide is contained within the sixth commandment. This means that Suicide is a case by case basis, as there are times when it can be justified, or at the very least, understandable. I am not saying that it is ever right, there is never any excuse for taking your own life unless it would involve others being saved. -Any Law can be broken for the preservation of life- What I am saying is that there are times when the person does have reason to take their own life, and it not be morally considered Justified. You need to understand that just because something is justified, does not make it right.

Readin the Bible, you would be surprised to find that there is in fact, no scripture directly stating that suicide is wrong. Some people believe that Gen 9:5 is an indirect prohibition of suicide, but after I looked it up with context, I do not think it has anything to do with that. Most people translate it as "I will require your blood if you yourselves shed it." But the King James Versions says “but surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Now remember that special Hebrew word we talked about before? You know, Murder. That is the word it is using whenever it says “Shed Blood” so it is saying that if you murder someone, then God will demand your life in return. So this has nothing to do with taking your own life. The reason that there is no Scripture that directly states anything against suicide is most likely because it is not something a sane person would do.

As Rabbi Lewis Jacobs puts it, “It follows from this that suicide and murder are two separate offenses in the Jewish tradi­tion, as they are in most cultures. Suicide is not homicide and is not covered in the Decalogue [the Ten Commandments]. In the usual rabbinic classification of duties, homicide would be considered an offense both "between man and God" and "between man and man," whereas suicide would fall only under the former heading.
Maimonides' statement (Rotzeah, 2.2-3) that there is no "death at the hand of the court" for the crime of suicide, only "death by the hands of Heaven," is puzzling, since how could a suicide, no longer alive, be punished for the crime by the court?”

So why do we look at Suicide as a sin if it is never spoken of as such in Scripture? It is probably because by taking your own life, you are refusing God’s gift to you, and changing when God has your death planned. So you are taking God’s plan into your own hands and doing what you want instead. But that is the same as every other sin, so why are people fixated on Suicide being the ultimate crime that sends you straight to Hell no matter what you did while you were alive? Ultimately, the Jews believe

Another problem is; what defines suicide? Do you have to pull the trigger yourself? Or merely allow someone else to pull it? Would not fighting back morally be considered suicide? What if someone kills a pacifist, giving them plenty of opportunity to fight back and live? Would that be suicide? Or how about the Martyrs who allowed themselves to be murdered because of what they believed? Would that be considered assisted suicide? Who is at fault in assisted suicide? Is that considered Murder? At what point does allowing yourself to die become suicide? There is obviously a line, and I gave some very extreme examples, but that does not change the fact that when it comes to someone taking their own life, we are far too quick to judge whether they are right or wrong, or whether they are going to Hell or not. When it comes to my own life, I have an extreme faith in God. I believe that no matter what happens to me or what I do, I will die the absolute moment that God wants me to. Because of that, I tend to be extremely reckless, and do very stupid things. There have been numerous times in my life where by all rights I should have died. And a few of them could have been seen as suicide if you did not know the whole story. All of this is to say that both of the friends I lost were good Christian Men, and I have no doubt in my mind that when I die in God’s good time, I will see them both again.

Ethics of the Fathers 4:21: "Despite yourself you were fashioned, and despite yourself you were born, and despite yourself you live, and despite yourself you die, and despite yourself you will hereafter have account and reckoning before the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He."