By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — The Mishnah discusses an interesting case concerning an individual assuming personal liability for damages that one inadvertently causes to another. The text reads: “A human being is always considered ‘forewarned’ and is responsible in all situations where he inadvertently or purposely caused damage to another—whether he was awake, or even if he was asleep. If someone blinded another person’s eye, or broke his vessels, he must pay full damages.[1]
- The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was fond of saying, “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does . . . That is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does,[2]
Who would imagine Sartre and the Mishnah concurring on a matter of vital importance—personal responsibility? This principle not only applies to the individual, it ought to be apply no less to sovereign states. As human beings, we cannot evade the negative consequences of our deeds. And this takes us to the question concerning China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic.
There are some who would argue the coronavirus began as a biological weapon, conceived in a secret laboratory outside Wuhan, China, a city that is approximately the size of Chicago. Without the emergence of concrete and irrefutable evidence, we must dismiss such theories.
One of the reasons I doubt it is a biological weapon that went awry is because this pandemic has decimated the Chinese economy far more than President Trump’s sanctions, not to mention the global economy as well. Factories came almost to a halt, because migrant workers who left for New Year celebrations could not return to their workplaces, thus impeding production and China’s trade capacity. The current export outlook of China remains under the shadow of the continuing spread of the virus. No sane leader would deliberately inflict such a mortal blow to one’s own country.
But this much we know.
The Chinese claim there have been only 3,299 coronavirus-related deaths, with most taking place in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global pandemic. However, Chinese media outlet Caixin reveals that in some funeral homes, there has been as many as 5,000 urns. This would suggest the numbers could be vastly greater than admitted by the government. In the last quarter alone, there were 40000 cremations in Wuhan according to data from the city’s civil affairs agency.[3] The numbers could be even higher.
The Chinese Communist government has a long history of disregarding the welfare of its citizens. While we assume the pandemic has a natural origin, the Beijing government bears the responsibility for trying to cover it up. Its mishandling of the virus has led to a problem that the world must now suffer and ultimately resolve as an international community. When the courageous Chinese physician Li Wenliang tried to warn his fellow medical practitioners about the situation in Wuhan, the Chinese gestapo forced him to sign a statement that his warnings constituted criminal misbehavior. Not surprisingly, he was soon dead of the very plague he tried to warn of. Incidentally, the same fate awaited the other physicians who dared to warn their people about the danger of this pandemic.
The good news is the coronavirus pandemic will eventually subside. It is my hope the international community will confront Beijing’s moral cowardice and irresponsibility, and dishonesty in the early days of the outbreak. The pandemic in one sense has morphed into a new World War, but this time it is humanity that is fighting for its life.
Let us pray that every nation will emerge humbler and wiser to the lessons we have learned, namely, each of us is our brother’s keeper.
NOTES
[1] BT Bava Kama 23b.
[2] Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946, repr. 2007), p. 29.
[3] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/27/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/china-corona-toll/#.XokimIhKiUk ; https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/01/china-coronavirus-official-figures-underreporting-pandemic-response-xi-jinping/
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Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California. He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishw0rld.com