Why Life Is Worth Defending

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Pikuach Nefesh means the Jewish value of saving a life:  to save one life is to save a world-the highest mitzvah.

The creation of Adam was pretty awesome, a life.  We were made from dust of the ground, which must have contained the amino acids of adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, the building blocks of life.  Eve came from his rib; something that scientists today are doing to create animals such as Dolly, the cloned sheep.

Dolly was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of a six-year-old Finn Dorset sheep and an egg cell taken from a Scottish Blackface sheep.  Bringing back a prehistoric Neanderthal has even been considered doing, but morality prevents that as well, moving away from creating a Jurassic Park.  

We started off badly with Adam and Eve's two sons: Cain killed Abel right off the bat. Cain then asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

 Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. Cain then murdered Abel, whereupon God punished Cain by condemning him to a life of wandering.  He was a marked man; others were not to kill him.    So mankind has been wandering ever since.  Geneticists have shown us that life started in Africa, and moved out and over the planet.

Moses gave us the outline of how to act towards each other.  5th commandment was: You shall not kill.  6 through 10 are rules of not causing others to take your life !  We were told this well before 1291 BCE, over 3,000 years ago, as a measure for our morality.                   

• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
• You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.      

                                                    

• 
  
•  whoever saves one life saves the world entire.
• —paraphrased from the Talmud
  
  
  
  Throughout the ages, man has wanted the other man's property, fighting wars for it only to lose it later to another stronger group of men;  Assyrian's, Babylonians, WWI, WWII.  Putin....
• The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.                           

  

  
   An estimated 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people died during World War II. Among the Allied powers, the U.S.S.R. suffered the greatest total number of dead: perhaps 18,000,000. An estimated 5,800,000 Poles died, which was 20 percent of Poland's prewar population. 

Over 3,000 Ukrainians  have died in Ukraine's war with Russia so far.  No telling how many Russians have already died. Many have rushed to Ukraine's aid from other countries, helping to save their lives by doing something of defending them.  Many Russians have already left Russia, not bearing to take the position of Nazis who were invaders of Poland in 1939.  Isn't it ironic that tomorrow, May 9,  is the day Russia will celebrate winning over the Nazis?  In Putin's convoluted thinking, it's okay to invade others and take their lives, as long as in the end, you are the one and only winner.    

We have taken lives of those who broke our most serious laws, like murder- as  punishment for breaking the law

 Israel doesn't even do that; only in the most serious of circumstances, taking the step that life is precious and taking it is serious business.                  

We've advanced mentally in our skills, getting close to being G-dlike in our creations.  We may have even attracted the attention of outer-space UFO's.  But have we advanced in other ways?   

In Judaism, a fetus is a life once it is out of the uterus. In other words, The fetus is not a human life until it is born.   How many abortions are done in late stages?  However, Jewish law allows abortion if the pregnancy will cause severe psychological damage to the mother. ( It seems that many women would use this as their excuse).                                

          The statue of David, king of Israel by Michelangelo

 David, youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd, learned empathy from caring for his sheep, meant for greatness, king of Israel, father of King Solomon

No civilized society could survive without laws which occasionally cause some suffering or personal anguish. One human life is worth a million lives, because each life is infinite in value. In cases of rape or incest Jewish law still does not sanction abortion. Man's procreative responsibilities are serious and carry rights and obligations which would be upset by liberalized abortion laws. If a person kills a person who is mortally wounded, the killer is guilty of a moral offense.                     

Who cares if we break a moral law?  He who breaks the law cares, if he is a normal person.  It bothers us first.  We have our own little policeman (conscience)  inside our minds and we care.  Those who are missing that policeman are termed immoral.  Most experts believe psychopaths and sociopaths share a similar set of traits. People like this have a poor inner sense of right and wrong. They also can’t seem to understand or share another person’s feelings. But there are some differences, too.

.  A psychopath doesn’t have a conscience. If he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won’t feel any moral qualms, though he may pretend to. He may observe others and then act the way they do so he’s not “found out,” Tompkins says.  A sociopath typically has a conscience, but it’s weak. They may know that taking your money is wrong, and they might feel some guilt or remorse, but that won’t stop their behavior.                           

Both lack empathy.  It's that which we try to develop in children; empathy for animals and that reaches out to people.  

Resource:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/cain-and-abel-hot-topic/

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/sociopath-psychopath-difference