Here’s an ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

Imagine that a terrorist armed with a bomb manages somehow to elude Israeli security and enters the Knesset with all 120 members present.  He says that he really only wants to kill the Prime Minister (in another room).  There is virtually no chance of overpowering the terrorist before he can detonate the bomb.  If the Israelis give him the Prime Minister, he will let the rest go.  If not, he will blow up the entire Knesset building including the Prime Minister and the other 119 members.  May one take the law into one’s own hands?  What if it is to react violently to personal anti-semitism – does that change anything? 

Answer

Should the Knesset members give up the Prime Minister to the terrorist or die themselves, along with the Prime Minister?  On the surface, it seems like a simple decision: saving 119 lives is certainly better preferable to losing 120 lives.  However, the Jewish value on life makes the decision much less clear.

[a] We are aware that it is written (Sanhedrin 37a) that “he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved an entire world.”  Thus, each life has the value of a world – each life has infinite value.  If one life has the value of infinity, then 120 lives also have the value of infinity (since any number multiplied by infinity is still infinity).  Therefore, based on the math and the general concept, it is not clear that 120 lives are more valuable than one life.

[b] Another Talmudic passage (Sanhedrin 74a) presents the case of a terrorist who puts a gun to your head, and orders you to kill another person or be killed.  One may not kill another person in that instance, even to save one’s own life.  The Talmud asks, “Who says that your blood is redder than his blood?” suggesting that no person can judge whose life is more valuable than whose.  By extension, we may ask, “Who says that any two or five people are more valuable than any one person?”

[c] It is for these reasons that Maimonides (Hilchot Yisodai ha-Torah 5:5) brings down our case, and rules that the Knesset Members would not be allowed to save their lives by giving the terrorist “just” the Prime Minister to be killed.  A person may not do anything to bring about the death of another human being.  The fact that terrorists will kill is their problem, and they will suffer for it, but any law-abiding Jew is forbidden to assist in killing.  Maimonides does bring one caveat, however.  If the Prime Minister (or the specific person being requested) is guilty of sins requiring his death, then (and only then) he may be handed over to the terrorists.  Short of that, nothing should be done, even if it means the death of everyone.  

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge 2”, pgs. 60-62

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver

Note from Rabbi Faudem:  Other Rabbis say, if someone is singled out [by the terrorists], that is enough for the group to turn him over [to the terrorists] – and the group would not necessarily be guilty of sins requiring death (Talmud Yerushalmi, Terumot 8:4).