[Avodah] Costa Concordia and halachah

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 03:21:29PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: I cannot cite any sources, but it seems to me that the halachos RGS
: cites are for ordinary situations, where "all else is being equal",
: such as where ordinary passengers are in a lifeboat and the food is
: running out, or whatever. It is difficult for me to imagine that it also
: applies to special situations, such as that of the captain and crew,
: who accepted responsibility for the safety of their passengers.

: If I am wrong and RGS is correct, then it seems that his logic would
: also apply to soldiers, who would then be allowed to abandon their units
: and seek safety under the "chayechah kodmin - each man for himself"...

Except that milchamah is a special case, being neither of the 3 yeihareig
ve'al ya'avor and yet still overriding piquach nefesh. I wouldn't try
extrapolating from other mitzvos to war.

It could be that the concept of milkhamah is that there is a time when
the nation has to choose to risk the few in order to save the many. IOW,
that the whole justification of going to war is based on overriding the
principle of "chayekha qodmin".

In particular, preserving a chain of command saves lives overall.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A pious Jew is not one who worries about his fellow
micha at aishdas.org        man's soul and his own stomach; a pious Jew worries
http://www.aishdas.org   about his own soul and his fellow man's stomach.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter