6. [Harry Potter] Snape v. Dumbledore - Can Murder Be Justified?

Dilemmas On Screen: A Jewish Perspective

Severus Snape is a professor at Hogwarts. He is a suspicious character who is constantly, over the course of the series, suggested to be in league with the bad guys, and is friendly with the “bad guy” students at Hogwarts.

That being said, Dumbledore trusts Snape, and it is repeatedly made clear how much he trusts Snape. The audience is never told why.

The audience does know that Snape is serving as a double agent and infiltrated Voldemort’s ranks back in the day. When Voldemort returns, Snape goes undercover again. Snape pretends to Voldemort that he is working for Voldemort and spying on Dumbledore on Voldemort’s behalf, but we are meant to understand it is really the opposite – Snape is actually working for Dumbledore. Harry doubts this. Nonetheless, Dumbledore won’t hear a word against Snape.

With respect to the specific scenario we’ll be analyzing, there are two relevant parts:

At the end of sixth movie (The Half-Blood Prince): Dumbledore is cornered by Draco Malfoy, one of the “bad guy” students. Although Malfoy is a bit of a bully and thug, he has not really done anything especially heinous. Harry is present and can see everything (and in the books, he is immobilized and silenced).

We learn that Malfoy was tasked by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Dumbledore is lying helpless and wandless before Malfoy. Malfoy has a significant amount of time to kill Dumbledore. Nonetheless, Malfoy continues to hesitate. He cannot bring himself to murder Dumbledore.

Finally, a few more adult and menacing bad guys appear on the scene. These bad guys urge Draco to kill Dumbledore. One even volunteers to kill Dumbledore. Draco still cannot bring himself to kill Dumbledore.

Snape appears on the scene. It is unclear what Snape will do. Remember, he is a double agent - on the one hand, he’s close to Dumbledore. On the other hand, he serves Voldemort. Now, he just entered the scene where some of Voldemort's closest servants are threatening Dumbledore.

Dumbledore, in a begging voice, says “Severus, please.”

Snape then murders Dumbledore and flees with the bad guys. There is no more pretense that he operates with the good guys, i.e. Dumbledore’s folks.

At the end of (part two of) the seventh movie (The Deathly Hallows): Snape is killed by Voldemort. We then get to see some of Snape’s memories, and the audience learns that a few critical facts: (i) Dumbledore, through his own mistake, was on the receiving end of a powerful curse. Dumbledore has up to a year to live. This event occurs at the beginning of the sixth movie/book, and is therefore a little less than a year before Snape murders Dumbledore (which occurs at the end of movie/book 6). That means Dumbledore apparently had only a few months to live.

(ii) Snape was the one to help Dumbledore recover from the curse; otherwise, Dumbledore would likely have died.

(iii) We also learn that (a) Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him (Dumbledore). Therefore, Snape had Dumbledore’s consent; (b) Dumbledore was on borrowed time – he was going to die soon, anyway; (c) Dumbledore did not want to be tortured. In fact, Dumbledore expressed concerns about the exact people who happened to show up when Malfoy had Dumbledore cornered. Snape knew this.

(iv) Dumbledore did not want Draco’s soul to be damaged by murder;

(v) Dumbledore apparently was not certain that Snape, in murdering Dumbledore, would suffer damage to Snape’s soul for sparing an old man (a) pain and (b) humiliation – to quote,

Snape: If you don’t mind dying, why not let Draco do it?

Dumbledore: That boy’s soul is not yet so damaged. I would not have it ripped apart on my account.

Snape: And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?

Dumbledore: You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid pain and humiliation.

(vi) Snape was able to carry on as a spy for the good guys against Voldemort (NOTE: the good guys did not realize Snape was still a spy, as EVERYONE thought Snape killed Dumbledore as a bad act – as such, Snape’s role as a spy was less related to actively supplying information to the good guys, and more to sabotage Voldemort from the inside/protect the good guys (even if the good guys didn’t realize this));

(vii) Snape was able to protect the students at Hogwarts; without Snape, a considerably more cruel servant of Voldemort’s would have taken over.

This leads us into the following questions:

1. Is murder allowed?
2. How about consent – can Dumbledore allow someone else to kill him?
3. Snape saved Dumbledore’s life – does that change anything?
4. Dumbledore was concerned he was going to be tortured – does that change anything?
5. What if the victim is going to die soon anyway?
6. What if it’s one life for another?
7. Can a person murder for a greater cause? Can a person allow himself to be murdered for a greater cause?
8. Is someone allowed to incur spiritual damage to oneself for another person’s spiritual well-being? Can I sacrifice my soul to save someone else’s soul?
9. How about incurring spiritual damage to oneself for another’s physical well-being? Can one, “sacrifice one’s soul” to protect someone else?
10. Does packaging all of these reasons together, even if separately they do not justify the murder, would they together justify it?

These are some of our questions. Let’s see what the Torah has to say.

I am excited to welcome Rabbi Daniel Sentell to this episode to answer our questions. Rabbi Sentell has served as Rabbi in Congregation Beis Meir Chevra Shas in Monsey, NY, as a Dayan in the Beis Yosef Beis Din in Boro Park, and as an editor for Machon Ayil. He has also served as a scholar-in-residence in Monsey, NY, Worcester, MA, and various other communities. He currently lives in St. Louis with his family.