Quantity and Quality in Human Lives and Mourning: 9/11

Opening message from the rabbi

Quantity and Quality in Human Lives and Mourning: 9/11

Sent on 9/11/2006

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Quantity and Quality in Human Lives and Mourning – 9/11

In light of the events of 9/11, several thoughts occurred to me. The disaster in the United States is commemorated mainly because of its monstrous scale. But each of those who were killed there, taken individually, suffered (as did his family and friends) like any other person killed in a smaller terrorist attack. So why does it matter that all the victims perished within a few hours in a single event rather than over the course of several years? Put differently, why do the victims of 9/11 receive more memorial observances and resources than any other victims of terror?

To be sure, we do find certain positions even in Jewish law according to which the number of lives has significance. Some explain the actions of Pappos and Lulianus (the Martyrs of Lod), who sacrificed their lives in order to save a community that was in danger, even though according to most opinions a person may not sacrifice his own life in order to save his fellow, by saying that this involved danger to a community rather than to another individual. Even so, there is a difference between comparing costs, where quantitative consideration has a place (is it preferable that two people be killed or two hundred), and the question I asked above. Should the grief over the death of a single person in an attack differ from the grief over the deaths of a thousand?

Of course, the question of the Holocaust also arises here, and indeed I think the same applies with regard to the Holocaust as well. The monstrous dimensions may indicate something especially grave about Nazi depravity, but even more than that, the mechanical character of the killing points to it. In that sense, even if there had been a planned, mechanical murder of two people, that would still have constituted a Holocaust in every respect (from the standpoint of what happened to those two people and to their families and friends).

My questions: 1. Does anyone see a reason to distinguish between levels of grief or memorial events according to the number of victims (or more precisely, the rate at which they perished? After all, we too have thousands of victims, except that this took years and did not happen within a single day)? 2. Is there any connection to the question of quantity and quality in human lives mentioned above? 3. An application to the Holocaust: does the scale of the death and murder there have significance, or only the mechanical nature of the evil?

Source (the forum ‘Stop Here, We Think’): http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=2036168&forum_id=1364