https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/judaism-is-pro-life-and-all-jews-should-be-pro-life/
Rabbi Ruttenberg said that “Jews do not believe that fetuses have souls and, therefore, terminating a pregnancy is no crime.”
That is not true. Rabbi J. David Bleich is a foremost authority in the field of bio-ethics, professor of Talmud at the Eichanan Theological Seminary and author of Contemporary Halakhic Problems in six volumes. Rabbi Bleich writes in Vol. 1 on page 326:
“Judaism regards all forms of human life as sacred, from the formation of germ plasm in the cell of the sperm until the decomposition of the body after death. While applicable halakhot vary in an appropriate manner from stage to stage along this continuum,The article also left out the comments of the preeminent Rav Moshe Feinstein, a Haredi Orthodox rabbi and scholar considered to have been an authority on abortion in Jewish law. His remarks in the following excerpt are from “Abortion in Israel,”commentaries published in the May 1976 issue of The Jewish Observer. Rabbi Feinstein states:
“We must reinforce our sensitivity to the Divine definition of life by reviewing the halachos [Torah laws) that govern preservation of life and prohibit taking of lives. Specifically, as the Rambam declares; abortion is a type of murder and can never be permitted except when the fetus presents a danger to the mother’s life. The proposed law in Israel is not only legalized bloodshed. More than that, it is also a terrible desecration of G-d’s name.”
The traditional Jewish view of abortion does not fit conveniently into any of the major "camps" in the current American abortion debate. Judaism neither bans abortion completely, nor does it allow indiscriminate abortion "on demand".
ReplyDeleteMy favourite is the woman in my community who posted on social media "I'm an Orthodox Jew and I support abortion because no one controls a woman's body!"
ReplyDeleteNo one? Not God?
You're Orthodox which means you accept halacha as binding but halacha forbids abortion except in rare cases. Do you not see the contradiction?
Remind that womsn, that bodily autonomy doesn't give you a right to murder another person.
ReplyDeleteAh, but her definition of life is "Begins at birth". It's so convenient. It's not halakhic but hey, she's a proud Orthodox Jews!
ReplyDeleteThat's why Rav Moshe's advice was "Stay out of the debate"
ReplyDeleteWe can stand together with other groups, on morality issues that we see eye to eye with them on.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, we share our opposition to indiscriminate abortions "on demand".
She’s entitled to her “opinion”.
ReplyDeleteBut you can ask her, how she arrived at the conclusion, that a fetus only becomes a "person" at birth.
What are her qualifications as a scientist, theologian, Torah ethicist etc.?
Who needs qualifications when you have finely developed senses of self-righteousness and outrage?
ReplyDeleteListen, the entire pro-abortion lobby falls apart when you ask them how they "know" that life begins at birth and not conception or some time shortly after. They know that which is why they pre-emptively scream and shout whenever they think you're about to bring it up.
http://t.co/ElXsSFVWDa#rZcwXO
ReplyDeleteCalmly corner them, and make them twist and squirm, until they admit that they have no coherent rational answer.
ReplyDeleteBen Shapiro Destroys the Abortion Argument
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/RDmwPGrZkYs
where does he say that?
ReplyDelete