Pikuach nefesh

At Aaron's school, there is a Shabbat service each Friday afternoon and two kids are specially honored, so that in the course of the year each kid at the school has a special day. Family visits to celebrate them, and they get to choose the songs, lead the blessings, and (in the upper grades) deliver a "Shabbat report." Fifth graders are asked to report on a family member who embodies a particular mitzvah. Here is Aaron's report, about my dad. It's beautiful to hear part of what his grandpa meant to him.

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My grandpa, Steve Scherr, did the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh, saving a life. He was a criminal defense lawyer, and he thought that the death penalty was wrong. Protecting people from the death penalty in his cases was an important part of his life. He tried hard to do this.

He defended lots of people in criminal trials, including the husband of a hair salon owner, a priest, politicians, police officers, homeless people, millionaires, college professors, and Dan White--the murderer of a popular mayor of San Francisco. Many of his cases were death penalty trials. He fought hard for his clients, and none of them were sentenced to death. This meant he saved the lives of many people.

What inspired him to defend these people is that, the way he saw it, he was not only helping his clients. He was helping all their friends, family, and community. In Jewish tradition, the midrash says that saving one life is like saving a whole world. My grandpa must have saved at least 50 worlds then.

He said “For the American judicial system to work, everyone needs the best legal help they can get.” He knew judges and juries make mistakes, and a mistake in the the death penalty can never be taken back. He also knew that, sadly, the death penalty is racist. This means that more black people are killed, sometimes for things they didn’t do. This is horrible and mean and scary, and it needs to be fixed.

When my grandpa defended people, he showed צֶדֶק, justice, to every single person he defended. I learned from my grandpa just how many problems there are in our country's judicial system. The judicial system can be racist, sexist and be very unfair to homeless people and countless other groups. This needs to be fixed and that's why people like my grandpa are around. Thank you for listening and shabbat shalom.