City of Dallas COVID-19 Update: May 31

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1. Judaism has a notion of tzarich (need).
   There are levels of tzarich, from small to great.

   This is a much better system than tying everything into a possible death.

   For instance, when my wife went to law school in Fort Worth, frequently the highway would shut down for construction, and they would block the exit ramps so that drivers could not escape into the local small cities causing them traffic.

   So my wife would often get trapped for more than an hour, sometimes two.

   This results from the poor thinking that if no one is about to die, then it’s greedy or selfish to complain.

   My thoughts are the suffering of those who need to use the bathroom, the loss of wealth from the doctors and accountants and babysitters and fathers who have those two hours stolen, and their wealth taken out of society. It’s not just about whether or not a death will result.

   This country has invested heavily in the value of our people. We also have a great value in families and social contacts.

   Anytime one wants to shut down the whole, a quantitative analysis needs to be made.

   As a guide, we need to look at what we have accepted in loss / risk.

   We accept a certain amount of deaths (and injuries) in permitting traffic, social contact, food distribution, entertainment, etc.

   What we need is a side-by-side comparison of what risks we accept versus the risks of not social distancing.

   For instance, we accept 36,000 traffic fatalities every year in the US.
   (we even use motor vehicles to go to the funeral of someone who died in a car accident).

   We accept risks in all facets of life. It’s a risk to get in a car and drive to shul, you could lose your arm or catch a disease or get robbed and shot or have a stroke and smash into a family walking their dog.

   Unfortunately, the secular world has very poor, very poor risk analysis and is incapable of dealing with it using level judgment. Zero experience.

   I’m not taking a side on the mask thing. I’m just saying that the world is ignorant and could use some wisdom from the religious leaders who have spent decades / hundreds / thousands of years examining risk versus “need”.

   “Need” includes the notion of better tasting food! Of course, that’s a low-level need. But before I studied in yeshiva, I thought that to use the word, “need” you had to tie it to a possible death.

   Not true.

   We even have a unit of measurement for “need”.

   If you would wait 72 minutes to get the better tasting food, then that count’s as a “need” that unlocks certain strictures. For instance, one opinion is that if you would wait 72 minutes on your travel to get the better tasting kosher bread – but it was made by a non-Jew in a factory for sale – then that would be the amount needed to permit eating the non-Jewish bread (kosher bread) made in a factory for sale. (The same 72 minute measurement on a trip means on your path. Going out of your way, like going backwards, the time is 18 minutes. If I would go the wrong way for 18 minutes to get the better tasting bread, then that level of “taste” would permit me to eat the non-Jewish bread (immediately – according to a middle opinion).

   When I first heard that taste is actually a “need”, I actually laughed.

   But that laughter was my ignorance colored by a life-time of basing every value on having to involve a possible death.

   I’d pay good money for a cold soda or a ball game, good clothing or a nice car.

   We, in fact, value things that do not involve avoiding death.
   The possibility of death does not freeze our ability to proceed in pursuing our other values.
   There is a risk calculation that secular society is not emotionally capable of making, primarily due to lack of wisdom.

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