11 Jul THE INDIGNITY OF INDIFFERENCE

9-1-1…
When we see those
numbers, every one of
us thinks the same thing
– Emergency Hotline.
Our children know from
a young age that if there
is a problem, dial 9-1-1. But when did this
emergency system start? When was it widely
adopted and put into practice?
On a cold winter night, March 16, 1964, at
around 2:40 in the morning, 28-year-old
Kitty Genovese was attacked with a knife,
just a block from her apartment, and died in
her stairwell. The New York Times coverage
of her murder stated that police records
showed 38 people admitted to hearing her
cries for help, but not a single witness called
to report the incident. Dozens of books have
been written about her death and the lack of
empathy and action taken by those around
her. (Fifty years later, a new documentary
called “The Witness”, dove into the entire
tragic story and reveals that the Times grossly
exaggerated that number.
There weren’t 38 eyewitnesses to the
murder, which began with an attack outside
and then continued in the apartment lobby.

Only a handful of people probably saw
Winston Moseley, who died in prison a few
years ago, attack Kitty. At least two neighbors
claim to have called the police, although
police logs have no record of those calls.
One neighbor, Sophia Farrar, did in fact run
to help Kitty and hold her as she died.
Whatever the exact number, the bottom line
is that people did hear her being attacked and
did nothing. Her tragic death led to several
positive things, most notably, the adoption of
the 9-1-1 emergency call system. It also led
to social scientists studying indifference and
what leads to people being passive and
apathetic to that which is happening around
them.
The dangers of indifference didn’t start with
the Kitty Genovese story; it goes as far back
as the Torah. A prince of Israel and a princess
of Midian acted shamelessly in public
together in a terrible affront to the Almighty.
The gross indiscretion was the act of two
individuals. True, there were others who
participated in the licentiousness and
responded to the seduction of the Midianite
women, but it wasn’t everyone. And yet,
when Hashem acknowledges Pinchas, it is
for turning back His wrath against all of Bnei
Yisroel and saving them from collective

suffering as if they are all guilty. What did
they all do wrong, wasn’t it only the actions
of a few?
And what is the reward for Pinchas? The
Noble Peace Prize. Rewarding Pinchas for
his intervention and act of heroism is
understandable, but is the peace prize really
the best reward for someone who brutally
drove a spear through two people and
violently ended their lives? Is bris shalom
really the most befitting award?
The most difficult thing to understand in the
story is the reason given for Pinchas’s reward
altogether. He is not acknowledged for the
Kiddush Hashem he made publicly, but
rather because “heishiv es chamasi”, because
he turned back Hashem’s anger at the Jewish
people. Didn’t Pinchas deserve a reward for
his behavior, even if the people continued to
be punished for theirs? Why are the two
intertwined?
I would like to suggest that the villains in
the Pinchas story are not in fact Kozbi and
Zimri, but the villain is indifference. Those
two acted out in public and nobody
challenged them on it. The nation watched,
perhaps stunned, but also silent, and nobody
protested or objected. When telling the story,
the Torah emphasizes that it took place
“l’einei kol Yisroel”, in front of everyone.
The Jewish people are collectively
punished, not for the act of one or even a
few, but because of their own failure to
act. They watched and observed and
didn’t object. They tolerated the
intolerable and created an atmosphere of
indifference, in which evil could thrive.
Pinchas’s act of zealotry when focused
on Kozbi and Zimri, the two recipients of
his spear, looks violent and even heinous.
However, from the perspective of a
crowd of passive onlookers, unable or
unwilling to act, Pinchas’s stepping in
was a brave act of heroism and an effort
to restore peace. He is awarded with the
bris shalom, the peace prize, because
sometimes the path to peace is not
through indifference and looking away, it
is only with brave initiative and the bold
willingness to be intolerant of the
intolerable.
Pinchas is rewarded for relieving the
people of their punishment and not for
the Kiddush Hashem of stopping Kozbi
and Zimri, because the core of the story is
not the act of the two, but the inaction of
the many.
The great Nobel laureate and Holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel taught:
Of course, indifference can be tempting
— more than that, seductive. It is so
much easier to look away from victims. It

is so much easier to avoid such rude
interruptions to our work, our dreams, our
hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome,
to be involved in another person’s pain and
despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent,
his or her neighbor are of no consequence.
And, therefore, their lives are meaningless.
Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no
interest. Indifference reduces the other to an
abstraction. In a way, to be indifferent to that
suffering is what makes the human being
inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more
dangerous than anger and hatred. (April 12,
1999 speech at The White House as part of
the Millennium Lecture Series)
Elie Wiesel witnessed and experienced the
worst of what indifference allows and
enables. Baruch Hashem, we don’t have
those horrific challenges. But we too
continue to suffer from indifference.
In the digital age, we are constantly exposed
to messages that teach apathy, not empathy.
For too many, social media is a vehicle to
spew hatred, gossip, dishonesty and bullying.
Of course the perpetrators are the most
accountable, but so are the masses who see it
and don’t say anything. They neither object
nor come to the defense of those being
attacked or treated unfairly.
When there is talking in shul, it is only
because the talkers are confident the
indifferent environment around them will
tolerate the talking. When people share
gossip, it is only because they are certain the
indifferent listener won’t object or stop them.
When people bully others to conform to what
they want, they get away with it because
most prefer indifference to getting involved.
These three weeks are a time for collective
and individual reflection on how we can
dispel the sinas chinam and show greater
love to one another. Ahavas yisroel means
hearing the call of those around us and
anticipating the needs of those suffering in
silence. It means sensitively and respectively
creating an atmosphere which shuts down
conversations of gossip and stepping in when
people are being bullied online or offline.
The women of Midian were seductive, but
as Elie Wiesel said, even more seductive is
indifference. We must never give in to her
temptation. Only by being intolerant of the
intolerable are we worthy of the bris shalom,
the gift of true and authentic peace.