[Avodah] costa concordia

[Rich, Joel]

> 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.
 
> 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.

WADR I could use some help with this 

1. Is the statement of the crew's obligation based on an "umdna" that
this is what they get paid for? Is the expectation set by halacha or
the company's training and employee's contractual obligations or is this
some Halachic standard set outside of these agreements?

2. Does HKB"H prefer this "holy act" or not?

3.Why is the crew member's involvement make it "everything is not equal"?

4.Why does the most help needed make a halachic difference to the order
of the mishna if someone will not be saved who would have otherwise.

Bottom Line -- the horiyot priorities once again get treated as a tertiary
methodology, unclear why.

KT 
Joel Rich