Suicide in Biblical Texts, in the Talmud and the Rabbinic Literature

U ovome se članku analiziraju stavovi i rasprave u judaizmu o bolnom problemu samoubojstva, osobito se usredotočujući na samoubojstva zbog vjerskih razloga. Prvi dio donosi općenit pregled stavova o samoubojstvu iz židovskih pravnih izvora te rasprava o konceptualnom temelju zabrane suicida. Središnji dio članka analizira neke slučajeve samoubojstva iz židovske povijesti od biblijskih vremena do talmudskog razdoblja, služeći se vjerskim izvorima kao što su Talmud i rabinska literatura. Među tim slučajevima je i biblijski slučaj samoubojstva kralja Šaula, kao i neki slučajevi iz Talmuda i rabinske literature. U ovom istraživanju ispituje se koji je stav ispravan u navedenim slučajevima prema izvorima židovskoga zakona. Jesu li takvi slučajevi izvor nadahnuća ili nedoličan čin? Autor se služi velikim brojem izvora od talmudskih vremena, preko srednjega vijeka sve do modernog doba, a dio te literature je autor prvi put preveo s hebrejskog i aramejskog na hrvatski jezik.In this article, the author analyzes and discusses the attitude of Judaism to the painful problem of suicide. The article focuses on suicide committed for religious reasons. The first part of the article consists of an introduction, followed by a general review of the attitude of Jewish law sources to suicide and the conceptual basis for the prohibition of suicide. The central part of this article is an analysis of various suicide cases throughout Jewish history, from Biblical times to the Talmudic period, using religious sources, such as the Talmud and the rabbinic literature. Among the cases the author discusses are the biblical case of King Saul’s suicide and some cases that have appeared in the Talmud and in rabbinic literature. In his research, the author uses the sources of Jewish law to examine the proper attitudes to these cases and to decide whether such an act can be considered in some cases as source of inspiration. The author uses many sources from rabbinic literature since Talmudic times through the Middle Ages up to modern times. Much of this literature has been translated into Croatian from Hebrew and Aramaic for the first time by the author