Day 144 - February 27, 2024 - What is a Life Worth?

What is a life worth?

How much weight does that life carry?

Physically?

Emotionally?

Spiritually?

Is one life worth one life?

Are some lives more precious and worth more than others?

How so?

Why?

The rate on October 7 was $10,000 for a dead Jew. Plus the bonus of an apartment. Based on the squalor living conditions that Hamas keeps their own population living in (tent cities), money and stable housing could be game changing for many families.

In November, I learned that a Jewish life held hostage can be worth 1/3 the life of a terrorist. 3 terrorists were freed from prison for one hostage violently kidnapped from their home.

In 2011, after over 5 years of captivity, I learned that one soldier was worth 1,027 terrorists... including the sadistic Yahya Sinwar himself.

In Judaism, we feel as though life is precious. We say that one person is an entire world in his/herself. We would do anything possible to protect human lives.

An article in the Jewish Journal by Paul Socken describes the idea as follows:

"Throughout history, it is often a lone individual who has had a major impact on the world and even transformed it. Abraham was the first Jew and introduced the concept of monotheism to the world. Moses freed the Jews from slavery in Egypt and received the covenant on Mount Sinai. In modern times, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which led to the development of antibiotics. Jonas Salk created the vaccine against polio that saved countless lives. Galileo’s discovery, in the early 1600s, revolutionized our understanding of our place in the Universe. Marie Curie, who won two Nobel Prizes and was the most acclaimed scientist of her era, discovered radium and plutonium, both used in the treatment of cancer."

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks coined the term “the dignity of difference.” He states that within the framework of unity, solidarity and shared values, there are important & necessary differences. Those differences make us unique, but they must not be a cause for discord.

To quote Pablo Casals, "To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world."