[Avodah] Smoking and Other Sakanas

[Arie Folger]

On Sunday 18 January 2009 06:25:27 Harvey Benton wrote:
> What exactly constitutes an immediate danger, or a direct pikuach
> nefesh?  Is it 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 2 years, etc.?
<SNIP>
I have addressed your questions in a post 5 minutes ago.
> Where and how do we assign percentages for sakana (R. Ari on living in a
> pollouted city), and subsequently act on them?  Is a 50 percent sakana the
> cutoff rate? And 50 percent of what?  Dying in a day, a week or in 20
> years?
It depends what is considered an acceptable risk societally.

Regarding living in Sderot, I'd say that the sakanah needs to be quantified 
(IOW, in reality, I am still not sure that the sakanah was so enormous in a 
quantifiable sense. Yes, it is scary, but rarely did someone get killed, partly 
because of security measures, and partly because of direct hashgacha.

Furthermore, many would argue that the logic of 'arei hasfar applies there, 
which supersedes our usual treatment of sakanah.

And regarding the Chabad House in Bombay, yes, you are right that the issues 
need to be weighed, but I see no sufficient reason to turn one tragic attack 
into an eternally unbearable risk. If the Indian police takes the right 
precautions, the place should be more secure now.

Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger
http://ariefolger.wordpress.com
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com