by R. Gil Student

I. Is Suicide in The Hands of Heaven?

On Rosh Hashanah, we pray that our new year be successful and full of life. The weighty prayer U-Nesaneh Tokef, despite or perhaps because its late origin, highlights the divine life-or-death judgment that serves as the holiday’s theme. However, Tosafos raise questions about the totality of this judgment in ways that affect our relationship to prayer, providence and freedom.

The Gemara (Kesubos 30a) states that everything is in the hands of Heaven except for cold and heat, because we can cool and warm ourselves to counteract the environment. Therefore, we sometimes (so, Rashi) suffer from heat or cold due to our own negligence in preparation. Tosafos (ad loc., sv. ha-kol biydei) point out that this does not mean that we should fail to protect ourselves from other dangers, since they are in the hands of Heaven. If one walks under a shaky wall, one risks the wall falling on him. Rather, such cases of negligence–or even suicide–are always in mortal hands. The Gemara is only discussing uncontrollable dangers and stating that cold and heat fall within the category of controllable.

R. Elchanan Wasserman (Kovetz Ma’amarim, p. 47) infers from this discussion that Tosafos consider suicide to be entirely within human control. Even if God decrees that a person will live throughout the year, the person still retains the ability to commit suicide. R. Wasserman then proposes an alternate approach.

II. Divine Decree

The Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhos Teshuvah 6:5) asks why the Egyptians were punished for enslaving the Jews when they were merely fulfilling God’s decree. He answers that while someone would have fulfilled God’s decree and subdued the Jews, the Egyptians did not have to be the ones to do it. They were not forced to commit the evil and therefore they were punished for it.

The Ramban (Gen. 15:14) disagrees. It is true that if God decrees that someone will die in the upcoming year, whoever kills him is guilty of a crime even though he is fulfilling God’s decree. However, a prophecy is different. The fulfillment of a prophecy is a mitzvah. The Egyptians were punished because they were overly severe; they went beyond the decree.

R. Wasserman highlights Ramban’s statement that a murderer fulfills God’s decree but is still guilty of a sin. This murderer took a life that was not his to take, and therefore must be punished. So too, he argues, someone who commits suicide fulfills God’s decree that he will die but is still guilty of a heinous crime. Suicide is murder, the unlawful taking of a life that is not his to take. Ironically, someone who commits suicide would have had his desire fulfilled in a non-sinful way, if only he had waited.

R. Wasserman also quotes the Chovos Ha-Levavos (Bitachon, ch. 4) who specifically says that one who commits suicide, like other murders, is guilty of a terrible sin even though the death is pre-ordained by God. He means that someone who is judged as deserving death in the upcoming year will die, one way or another. Therefore, someone who commits suicide is fulfilling God’s decree foolishly and sinfully–he will die anyway but now he will also be guilty for the murder. (Of course, we are setting aside the issue of mental illness. God’s judgment of sins committed due to mental illness is presumably compassionate.)

The question remains what Tosafos were thinking. How can someone defy God’s decree of life on Rosh Hashanah?

III. What Is Decreed On Rosh Hashanah?

A simple answer can be found in another Tosafos. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 16b) says that on Rosh Hashanah, three books are opened. The righteous are written for life immediately, the wicked are written for death immediately and the writing of those in between is delayed until Yom Kippur. The commentaries ask the obvious question from experience: Why do we see righteous people dying and wicked living? If they are written for life and death on Rosh Hashanah, how do they escape that clear and decisive judgment?

Commentators offer different answers. Perhaps most famous is the Ramban’s (quoted by Ran, Commentary to Rif, Rosh Hashanah 3x sv. tzaddikim) explanation that “righteous” and “wicked” refer to the outcome of the judgment. “Righteous” means someone judged for life and “wicked” means someone decreed for death, rather than literally righteous and wicked.

Tosafos (Rosh Hashanah 16b sv. ve-nechtamin) answer differently. They understand the Gemara’s mention of life and death as referring to life and death in the afterlife. On Rosh Hashanah, the righteous are written for reward in the afterlife and the wicked are written for punishment. This approach raises many questions, such as why this judgment is needed every year, rather than at the time of death.

An additional question addresses the meaning of Rosh Hashanah. If the judgment is only on the afterlife, then this world–the coming year–is not judged on Rosh Hashanah! While many prayers can be interpreted to refer to the afterlife (e.g. Zakhreinu Le-Chaim), some cannot (e.g. U-Nesaneh Tokef). Be that as it may, this view of Tosafos voids R. Wasserman’s question. No murder of any kind, including suicide, violates the divine decree on Rosh Hashanah because that judgment was about the afterlife, not life or death in the upcoming year.

An alternate interpretation of Tosafos’ approach, that answers many questions, is that the upcoming year is judged on Rosh Hashanah in relation to the afterlife. Sometimes, God wishes to punish a person in this world to avoid punishing him in the afterlife. Therefore, someone written in the book of (after)life may receive a decree for a bad year, in order to facilitate the good afterlife. On Rosh Hashanah, you are judged primarily for the afterlife and only secondarily for the upcoming year.

Rashba (ad loc.), in his second explanation, adopts Tosafos’ approach according to the first interpretation. However, Tosefos Ha-Rosh explicitly offer the second. According to the first interpretation of Tosafos and the Rashba, we can understand why Tosafos would be unconcerned that suicide is not pre-ordained by God. His divine decree is about the afterlife. While there is no indication that Tosafos dispute the concept of universal divine providence, there is still room for free will in regard to suicide and murder as long as it does not contradict an explicit divine decree. According to Tosefos Ha-Rosh, R. Wasserman’s question remains.

IV. Four Kinds of Deaths

Another possible answer for Tosafos lies in a philosophical interpretation of a verse in 1 Samuel. R. Sa’adiah Gaon (Emunos Ve-Dei’os 6:6) explains the widely accepted view among Medieval philosophers that a person’s lifespan is predetermined at birth but can vary for various reasons. Specifically, God will extend one’s life as a reward and shorten it as a punishment. Sometimes, someone righteous dies at a relatively young age that was actually later than he would have otherwise lived; his predetermined lifespan was actually extended. And someone wicked may die at a relatively old age that is younger than he would have otherwise lived.

The Kuzari (5:20) uses this to explain 1 Samuel 26:10, which reads: “David said, ‘As God lives, God will strike him with illness, or his day will come and he will die, or he will go forth into battle and perish.” The Kuzari sees three types of deaths discussed in this verse: 1) Miraculous death, unscheduled and caused by divine intervention, 2) Natural death, at a person’s set time and 3) Accidental death, caused by happenstance such as war. The Kuzari adds another type: 4) Chosen death, suicide, which is not mentioned by the text because no sane person would choose it. Yet, the Kuzari implies, a person can choose to die even when not divinely ordained. This is clearly similar to Tosafos’ approach. The Kuzari does not explain how his four-pronged theory of death relates to the divine decree on Rosh Hashanah.

Rashbash (R. Shlomo Ben Shimon Duran, Responsa Rashbash, no. 195) takes up this task. He was asked whether a person should flee a city suffering from a plague. If one’s fate is sealed on Rosh Hashanah, why bother running? If you are destined to live, you will no matter what you do. In a responsum quoted by later authorities (see Pischei Teshuvah, Yoreh De’ah 116:8), Rashbash offers a three-pronged theory of the Rosh Hashanah decree.

Some people receive a decree on Rosh Hashanah for life, and will survive any situation. Others are judged for death and will meet their fate, one way or another. These two types fall under the Kuzari‘s first or second types of death. However, some receive no decree for the year. These people are subject to the third and fourth types of death. Absent proper care, they may die. Or they may survive and even thrive.

This third type, the people who receive no decree about this-worldly life or death, must flee a plague-infested city. As opposed to those in the first two types, these people may be killed or even kill themselves. Since we do not know in which category we fall, we must be careful and act as if we are in the third. Similarly, the Torah (Deut. 20:5) exempts a groom from military service lest he be killed in battle. If his death is pre-ordained, he has no reason for concern. But if he is among this third type, he may die in battle despite his lack of such a decree.

V. Summary

What happens on Rosh Hashanah? According to the Ramban and Chovos Ha-Levavos whom R. Elchanan Wasserman quote, everyone’s year is determined on Rosh Hashanah. On that day, God decides who will live and who will die over the upcoming year. It is theologically impossible for someone decreed for life to commit suicide.

According to one explanation of Tosafos, Rosh Hashanah is all about the afterlife. We cry and pray for our eternal souls, not for our lives in this world. Therefore, suicide is possible but sinful. According to Tosefos Ha-Rosh, we are judged for both this world and the next, and suicide is therefore impossible. And according to the Rashbash, not everyone receives a judgment for life or death on Rosh Hashanah. Suicide is only theologically possible for some people, but we do not know who.

VI. Theological Trade-Off

The notion of suicide–a terrible sin and an affront to God who gave us life–is a theological see-saw. Understanding suicide requires trading off between two theological concepts, each necessary on its own but still conflicting.

The view that R. Wasserman espouses, that suicide is impossible absent a divine decree for death, maximizes providence. God controls life and death. But in turn, it restricts free choice. People are limited in their opportunities to commit the grave sin of murder.

In contrast, Tosafos’ view, that people are only judged for the afterlife and not for this world, trades free choice for providence. Human free choice is expanded but God’s role in deciding who lives and who does not is diminished.

And in the middle is Rashbash’s approach, which contains only some of this limitation. People can only murder those who have been decreed to die or who received no decree. They cannot commit the sin of murdering someone who was decreed to live.

Our goal, of course, is to avoid and prevent murder. Suicide is a terrible sin and a symptom of mental illness. But the very possibility of murder and suicide raises important questions about God’s role in our lives and our deaths.

(Reposted from Sep ’14)