[Avodah] costa concordia

[Eli Turkel]

We had discussed in the past the Costa Concordia sinking and the Captain
leaving the ship.  The halachot of this case where discussed in a recent
shiur of Rav Zilberstein.

His concluions were
1) The captain and crew have special obligations to rescue the passengers
beyond the normal requirement to help people in danger. This is considered
as part of their job and they receive part of the salary for knowing what
to do in emergency situations. Thus, the captain and crew must remain
aboard until the last moment before the boat sinks. If the captain leaves
earlier he is considered a "rodef" as he causes a loss of morale among the
passengers. Of course once the deck is close to the waterline they have no
obligation to search for passengers still trapped as that would be suicide.
An ordinary passenger should take the first lifeboat available and need not
worry about the safety of others as the danger involved is too large,
Nevertheless even they did this they would be considered holy and not
sinners as most suicides would be.

He further stated that he saw no justification for someone to hire himself
as a guard for mob figures as part of their job is to protect the mob
leader no matter what and the risks don't justify any salary. OTOH
guearding a political person is legitimate as the chances of an attack on a
leading politician is slim compared to gang attacks.

He discussed cases where towns were under attack and teshuva by Chatam
Sofer whether the rabbi should stay with the last remnants or flee the
town. From stories in the Holocaust we know of rabbis who refused to leave
their flock though given the opportunity and they again are considered
holy. In the terror attack on the Merkaz haRav yeshiva the teachers
remained to help the boys hide and went themselves into hiding only at the
last minute. They were not required to do this but again it is considered a
holy act.
Rav Elyashiv concurred with these rulings.

As to the order of saving people the Mishna is not applicable. Everyone had
bought tickets and so had rights to be saved as soon as feasible and there
is no preference for a Cohen etc. R. Elyashiv points to a Rashi that says
the Mishna only applied if everything else is equal. Hence, in this case it
would apply only if a bystander were rescuing people not if the crew is
rescuing passengers. R. Zilberstein thought the concept of first saving
women and children was valid as they are the weakest and need the most help.





-- 
Eli Turkel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20120325/11d9bece/attachment-0001.htm>