Word Inflation and Today’s National Day of Mourning

In early Genesis, God decides to create the world. He could have done so by blinking his proverbial eye, snapping his fingers or just willing it. Instead, he creates through speaking - through “And God said” — teaching us the importance of words at the very beginning. The message is clear: If God creates his world with words, then we, who are created in his image, create our world with words.

This theme is consistent throughout the Torah and in Jewish thought. Vows, which the Torah discourages in Numbers, must be kept – with only limited exceptions. This philosophy extends to Jewish thought and practice. The 20th century sage the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson asked that hospitals not be called “houses of the sick” as is common in Hebrew, but “houses of healing” – and that we use the term “due date” instead of “deadline.”

This teaching is especially relevant now. Today is an official “National Day of Mourning” for Jimmy Carter – who died on December 29 at 100 years old. President Biden implored people to “assemble…in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter Jr. I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.”

This is not the time to discuss the legacy of President Carter – as the National Day of Mourning is not unique to him. The sitting President has declared an official day of mourning for every President who has died since President Kennedy.

Let’s put aside President Kennedy. A great President and an inspirational man, he was assassinated at age 46 — leading to the same kind of immobilizing sadness that follows the death of a loved one. He had a similar connection with the nation and its people as did Moses and Aaron in the Torah. But President Kennedy’s situation is unique. The other Presidents who have had national days of mourning died as old men, long after the conclusion of their days of service.

Seemingly all cultures and people have mourning rituals and processes – to enable the living to live through their grief, and to continue on despite the great loss they have just suffered. Given the established importance the Torah gives to words, does the word “mourning” apply to an ordinary citizen of the United States regarding the death of Jimmy Carter?

The average American was born six years after Jimmy Carter lost his re-election bid. Let’s imagine a conversation between a hypothetical 39 year old, Jessica (the most popular name in 1986) and her boss.

Jessica: I can’t come to work tomorrow. I am in mourning.

Boss: Mourning? I’m so sorry. What happened?

Jessica: Jimmy Carter died two weeks ago.

Jessica is getting fired. Why? People die all the time, and yet we mourn for those who we cared deeply about – and need help getting through the vacuum their passing has created. It is impossible that the hypothetical 39 year old had that experience – especially given that mourning generally begins immediately following the death, and not two weeks later.

The word “mourning” is not the only word being misused today. President Biden invited the “people of the world” who “share our grief” to also participate in the Day of Mourning. President Biden, who lost three children and a wife in two deeply tragic instances, knows grief. Does he really think that Americans outside the Carter family and close friendship circle – let alone the “people of the world” – are grieving the death of his 100 year old predecessor? No way. He’s just doing one of the things the Torah is concerned about – not taking words seriously.

(Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States)

One might say: So what? What’s the harm in inflating the meaning of the words “mourning” and “grief”?

There are two things to consider. One is what always happens with word inflation; it degrades the gravity of what the word actually describes. If we are supposed to “mourn” and “grieve” for Jimmy Carter, then what does the kind of grief that President Biden genuinely experienced mean?

There is also a very real material consequence of this word inflation. In order to “mourn” and deal with their “grief” at the December passing of President Carter, federal workers get the day off, the stock exchanges are closed and there will be no mail. This means that the taxpayer is paying salary to millions of employees who are not working and in “overtime” for the “essential” federal employees who will be working. This means the government is foregoing billions in tax revenue – this is the amount that is collected for an ordinary day of stock trading. It is hard to calculate the damages from a day without mail – but it is something significant (or else the mail service wouldn’t exist).

If people were actually mourning and grieving — then, fine, it is a part of life and as such incurs some economic cost. But if not, the word inflation is imposing quite a deadweight loss upon all of us.

Does this mean that we should not, even formally, acknowledge the passing of President Carter? Not necessarily. He is having a funeral in the Capitol Rotunda, which is appropriate for a former President.

What else should we do? President Biden, rather than telling Americans who to grieve for (quite a magnification of Presidential prerogative), could deliver another message. He could say that Jimmy Carter was very involved with Habitat for Humanity, a wonderful organization that builds houses for the poor — and call on Americans who want to honor the memory of the former President to donate time or money to it. One would imagine that Jimmy Carter would have preferred that to federal workers sleeping late, the stock market ceasing its activities and mail service shutting down.