The Masada Ruling and the Shelter

Rav Shlomo Goren once ruled that soldiers in extreme distress may, according to halacha, take their own lives, as the defenders of Masada did. Rav Neria opposed this firmly and warned of where such a ruling would lead if applied across history.

Years later, during the withdrawal from Sinai, the two of them went to a shelter where followers of Rav Kahana had barricaded themselves, to persuade them to come out rather than destroy the shelter with themselves inside. Rav Goren spoke to those within through a window. He told them that he and Rav Neria differed on the earlier ruling, but that on the matter of their lives there was no dispute at all.