Shabbos 55
“Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”
We have moved from mundane discussions of insulating pots and donkeys covered with saddle cloths to the broader theme of compassion, sin, death, and responsibility.
A story is told of a poor woman who approaches Shmuel crying about an injustice that was committed against her. Shmuel, perhaps lost in analyzing some fine point of Rabbinical rules, ignores the woman and carries on with whatever was preoccupying him. Rav Yehuda, who is junior in stature, observes the encounter and berates Shmuel for his lack of compassion and says “whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he shall also cry himself.” Shmuel explains the culpable party is the judge who refuses to listen to the distressed woman’s case and casts blame elsewhere: “the superior of your superior will be punished in hot water.”
Rav Yehuda shows some chutzpah in his willingness to point out to the august Shmuel that perhaps he should have shown some compassion for the woman, while Shmuel appears to not have taken responsibility for his actions. The Talmud questions if the righteous can truly be so if they witness injustice and wickedness and fail to speak out. The answer is that the righteous will also be punished if they remain silent: “those who failed to protest would also be punished.
The discussion of punishment is extended to an analysis of if there can be death without sin. Rav Ami says remarkably, that “were a person not to sin, he would not die. And there is no suffering without iniquity.” We are provided with the names of great men like Moses and Aaron that presumably died because of their sins. Adam is said to have been penalized with the first death penalty for violating a “simple mitzva.” And in the end, if the logic is followed through, all men sin, and all men die. But the Talmud being the Talmud, the logic is twisted, and we are offered an alternative: “Apparently, death is not dependent upon one’s actions. Everyone dies.”
What resonated with me today is the responsibility to speak up no matter how difficult the consequences when we see inequity or in the language of the Talmud, “wickedness.” Rav Yehuda provided a good example of this when he challenged his superior. There are men and women among us who speak up when it is inconvenient and risk their livelihoods and safety. An example is Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in Wuhan, China, who warned about the looming outbreak of a mysterious virus in December 2019. He was criticized by the Chinese government for making false statements. He later contracted the virus from a patient and died from the disease this past February. The Chinese government apologized to his family after he died. An opportunity was lost to provide the world with an early warning of an encroaching global pandemic.
We have our own instances in the US of men who raised issues associated with our response to Covid-19 and allege they have been silenced by our government. Captain Brett Covier was removed as commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt this past April for his concern over the spread of the virus on his ship. Almost 900 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for the virus. Rick Bright, an expert in vaccines who worked for the US Department of Health’s Biomedical division, was dismissed after he questioned the administration’s advocacy of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19. A recent study has suggested that the drug potentially resulted in more deaths among the virus-stricken populations who received it than in those that did not.
In hospitals across the country medical workers have been voicing their concerns for months over the lack of supplies, and support for the front-line work they are doing. They are all examples of speaking up and making their voices heard. If only our governments would listen.