[Avodah] costa concordia

[Zev Sero]

On 25/03/2012 10:39 AM, Eli Turkel cited R Zilberstein:
>
> 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.

The principle that one may risk ones life for money is established in
the Torah: "ve'eilav hu nosei et nafsho".  So who is to say how much
risk is too much?  Surely the fact that people do take these jobs, for
sufficient money, shows that they consider the risk to be worth the
money that they get.  And surely most such guards do in fact survive.
As do most mob leaders, for that matter.  So I don't see what basis
RZ has for deciding that guarding a controversial politician is OK but
guarding a mob boss isn't.  (Of course there's a whole 'nother shayla
about becoming an accomplice to the mob boss's crimes, but that isn't
the subject here.  Assume that this mob boss doesn't do any aveiros,
that all his crimes are halachically justified, so mesa`ye'a` is not
an issue, but he's still at risk from assassins.)


> 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.

I don't understand this at all.  Surely if they all bought tickets they
are all equal, and so the order *does* apply.  What RZ says would be
relevant if the Cohen had not bought a ticket and the Yisrael had.
Then the bystander must save the Cohen first, while the crewman must
save the Yisrael first.  But if they both have tickets, and there are no
other considerations to favour the Yisrael, then surely the heirarchy
must apply, mustn't it?

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon