Reply To: Tishah BeAv and Yom HaShoah

Regarding the sirens being a Goyish practice, it’s not so clear how strong that argument is.

Using silence as a response to tragedy is a very logical response. We take a second to shut down what’s going on around us to think about the tragedy that we are mourning about. It’s hard to say that something this logical, something not based in avodah zarah, is something that Goyish.

Not only that, but it also has roots in the Torah and Chazal. When Nadav and Avihu died, Aharon was silent. Iyov’s friends sat in silence with him for seven days.The Gemara in Berachos 6b says that “the merit of attending house of mourning lies in maintaining silence.” Even in our Mesorah, silent contemplation, expressing silent solidarity with our brethren, is a very Jewish concept indeed.

Using a siren to signal to the masses when to be silent together, as a tzibur, to commemorate a national tragedy, is pragmatic. The fact that we took that idea from the Goyim doesn’t make it anymore of a Goyish practice then using the styles of Goyim (like a suit and tie), using their inventions (cars and planes), or their ideas (I would assume many fundraising, education, and kiruv strategies are based on strategies that were discovered and developed by non-Jews). Non-Jews can have good ideas too, and when they aren’t based in Avodah Zarah, we can utilize those ideas for a higher purpose.