In an article by Michael Rosenwald in the Washington Post (Dec. 30 issue), he reported on a question posed to 28 professors of history at major universities: What was the worst/most stressful year in world, U.S., British history?
The strong consensus was the worst year in world history was 1348 when the Black Death claimed 200 million lives. 2020 ranked sixth among the worst years for the world.
For families who have lost loved ones to Covid-19, 2020 will likely rank at the top of worst years for them without any mental comparisons to other historical moments including plagues, wars, and the like.
The reasons for these feelings need no explanation, but we can benefit from perspective on just how painful such losses are and how we should avoid thinking of individuals in terms of ‘statistics’. In the Mishnah, the fundamental text of Rabbinic Judaism, we find this perspective in a section about how judges question witnesses in capital cases.(Sanhedrin 4:5) Because the justice system of the time relied on witnesses, judges admonished those coming forward with testimony that the results of false testimony would be catastrophic. The judges would say:
“Adam was created alone to teach you that anyone who destroys one soul…the Torah condemns him as if he destroyed an entire world.”
One life is an entire world, a world of love, friendship, experiences, contributions to the world, and more. While fewer people have died from Covid19 than the Black Death, the loss is no less painful to each victim’s loved ones and this pandemic has already changed the fabric of our societies just as the Black Death transformed European society.
While the world around us is changing, one element that can help prevent changes for the worse is, given the recognition of “every life is an entire world”, that we continue to take action to protect ourselves and others. By protecting ourselves with masks and distancing we help ourselves and we also help others, and the reverse is true as well. We can be responsible for ourselves and for others at the same time without compromising our freedoms or individuality. In the Talmud, the Rabbis make a statement that clarifies our responsibility to sanctify and protect the lives of others from threats, no matter who they are:
A certain person came before Rabba and said: An official of my place said to me: ‘Go kill so-and-so, and if not I will kill you.’ (What shall I do?) Rabbi responded: Let [the official] kill you and you should not kill. Who is to say your blood is redder? Perhaps that one’s blood is redder.
(Sanhedrin 74a)
Rashi (France, 1040-1105) explains ‘blood is redder’ to mean, “Who knows that your blood [your life] is preferable and more pleasant to Your Creator that the other’s…”
If neither person’s life is “preferable and more pleasant” than another’s, then we are all responsible for ensuring the health and safety of others when pressed into action by an outside force. The outside force in the teaching is an official with local power and influence, but we can easily translate the teaching to name Covid19 as the outside force. The difference with Covid19 is no self-sacrifice is demanded other than taking reasonable precautions even for people who must go out of the house for work every day.
As we enter 2021, we now have two ways of thinking about responding to the pandemic that can guide us as we take actions to protect that one life that multiplies exponentially to many more. If every person we see is that ‘one life’, and we’re able to protect that ‘one life’, then hopefully 2021 can be at most a year of anxiety and inconvenience rather than a world-destroying tragedy. The pandemic is bigger than us, bigger than our country, and transcendent of the world, but we are each an integral part of the world and the limits we place on ourselves now can help us to live into the future in ways that are unlimited.
May 2021 be a year of healing and blessings, and if not one of the best years ever, then let it be a year when hope grows a little stronger each day.
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