To the Editor:
I attended many of the Senior Symposium events, and I thought they were all stimulating and thought-provoking. I feel, however, that I must comment on a story that was used by one of the speakers to portray Judaism. The speaker described an incident in which a Hassidic Jew refused to turn on the water to put out a fire in his house on the Sabbath. The speaker interpreted this action as a refusal of the Hassidic Jew to save his own life and as a behavior which is representative of Judaism and Jewish practice.
If this Hassidic Jew or any other Jew actually refused to save his own life, then such a refusal would have been in violation of a fundamental Jewish principle and law which states: "The saving of a life pushes away [or negates] the Sabbath."
Judaism considers life itself to be so precious that no Sabbath observance is more important than saving life -- whether one's own or that of another. The incident described by the speaker perhaps was true, but if so, it was anecdotal at best. It is unfortunate that in an otherwise fine presentation, the speaker felt it necessary to invoke this old and inaccurate view of Judaism.