It is certain that, using any measurement known to man, that each person has strengths and weaknesses. No two people are equally valuable in every way. And so, objectively, mankind can be measured using utilitarian metrics.
Nevertheless, we believers refuse to accept the evidence in front of us. We insist, counter to all empirical data, that every human life has value.
Why? What makes us so sure that some homeless drug addict also must be treated with respect merely because they are alive? Why can’t we harvest the organs of the unfortunates, as Planned Parenthood did with unborn babies, and Canada is doing right now to extract value from depressed people who agree to state-assisted suicide?
I think it is because G-d hears the cry. If you read the Torah carefully, you’ll see that a specific word, tza’akah, is used to describe a cry. People in the Torah cry when they have no power, or way forward. They cry when they feel cornered, and entirely incapable of managing a given crisis.
And we know G-d hears those cries. He hears them at Sodom:
I will go down to [Sodom, to] see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.” … For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before G-d has become so great that G-d has sent us to destroy it.”
Who is crying out? What is the outcry that reaches G-d? It surely must be the souls of those who have been abused or mistreated at the hands of the powerful. It is all the powerless have left.
Which is why this word is used much later in the text:
You [communal leaders] shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me … If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it before the sun sets; it is the only available clothing—it is what covers the skin. In what else shall [your neighbor] sleep? Therefore, if that person cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.
Which suggests that the behavior of Sodom was, in sum, the mistreatment of the powerless (widows and orphans), or a person who owns only one garment, and had to lend it out. Every human soul, created by G-d, retains a spiritual link to its source. Our souls can reach out and connect to the Almighty. For G-d, hearing the outcry of a human soul is like a parent hearing their child crying in pain.
This is the kind of understanding that haunts both Christians and Jews when we consider our own actions: have we really been sensitive to others? Have we tried to ensure that they never have cause to cry out to G-d because of the action we have taken?
And the text also suggests a radical corollary: Nowhere in the text does G-d respond to those who suffer in silence. The minimum requirement of every person is that we must advocate for ourselves, even if only in prayer to our Creator. Is this right?