Suppose on Shabbat day that an armed thieve enters the house and wants to rob everything, would a jew be allowed to fight the thieve ?
2007-06-13 17:35:00 · 5 answers · asked by Chief Justice 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I would add one comment to gratvol's answer. To save a life, any commandment can be broken, at any time (in fact, must be broken), save three: those against idolatry, incest and murder. As an example of the last, if someone says, "I'll kill person A unless you kill person B", you're not allowed to kill person B to save person A.
2007-06-13 18:54:51 · answer #1 · answered by Mark S, JPAA 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There's an example of this in the Apocrypha (books that didn't make it into the Bible):
The Book of Maccabees reports that a group of Maccabee rebels were attacked by Greek soldiers on Shabbat. They didn't fight back, and were massacred.
When Yehuda Maccabee heard about this, he told his soldiers that what their late brethren had done was a very stupid idea. If they didn't fight back on Shabbat, the Greeks would just attack them on Shabbat and kill them all. If they wanted to stay alive and win the war, they were going to have to defend themselves all week long.
The Book of Maccabees records that Jews took his advice.
2007-06-17 19:08:11 · answer #2 · answered by Melanie Mue 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If an armed robber enters your home you can assume that he is a threat to your life.
As such you can do whatever is needed to save your life or the life of others.
If lets say you see the robber break into your home and your down the street, and if no one is in the house you cannot break the sabbath to protect your property.
2007-06-14 01:06:13 · answer #3 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If it is as clear as day that the robber will not try to kill you (such as it is his father), no.
Otherwise, yes.
As he is armed, he clearly comes with the intention of if he meets resistance to use his weapon.
Consequently, you would probably be able to do more than just 'fight' the thieve.
2007-06-14 22:29:48 · answer #4 · answered by Gab200512 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah. The presumption is that life (and livelihood) rules over all. There are some legalists that might say otherwise, but let's face it, there are religious people of all sorts that twist their beliefs into stupidity.
All the best,
Laz
2007-06-14 00:39:51 · answer #5 · answered by The Man Comes Around 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋