Shemos (21:22-23) When two or more parties fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life.
Igros Moshe (C.M. 2:69.1) Question: Is abortion permitted? Answer: Abortion is prohibited both for Jews and goyim and is considered murder. While it does say in Tosfos (Nida 44a) in two places that abortuion is permitted, this is clearly a mistake in the text and should have said it is prohibited but exempt which needs to be corrected. The Rambam also rules that abortion is murder.
Abortion Rav Yakov Emden
Igros Moshe (C.M. 2:69.4) Question Rav Emden (1:43) writes that a mamzer embryo can be aborted since we see that a pregnant adultress is killed with her unborn child and thus he concludes that today it is also relevant even though there is no more Sanhedrin or death penalty. Answer His words are nonsense even if it were written by such a great person as Rav Emden. I saw in his words absurd things that should not be said It is clear that today without Sanhedrin there is no Torah death penalty and thus there is no justification for abortion of a mamzer. He also writes that someone today who deliberately does a sin that deserves capital punishment that it is good for him to commit suicide. This is clearly prohibited and Rav Emden is to be condemned for these words and the tshuva shouldnot be taken seriously. It was also claimed that the Rashba said the Ramban did abortions for non Jews. However I could not find such as statement in the Rashba nor can anyone else so it must be a forgery. There is clearly a contradiction in the Maharit. I was also astonished to see a tshuva written by a posek in Israel to abort an embryo more than 3 months that tests had indicated had Tay Sachs disease. He claimed that most poskim rule that abortion is only a Rabbinic decree for the needs of society and that other poskim such as Rav Emden permit abortion for great need. In fact Rav Emden clearly indicates that abortion is in general prohibited. In conclusion it is clear and obvious as I have written that according to Rishonim that abortion is prohibited as murder whether it is a mamzer or normal embryo or whether it has Tay Sachs. Don’t be mistanen and rely on the lone Israeli posek and I protest against him for the honor of the Torah and Truth.
Abortion request to doctor
Igros Moshe (CM II #73.8) Question Concerning those women in present times who are not properly observant because of our many sins who want to have an abort their pregnancy. Answer This is clearly prohibited as violating the prohibition against killing and it is also prohibited for a doctor to even assist not only for Jewish women but also non-Jewish women. Because bnei Noach are also prohibited to kill the unborn. In fact the prohibition is more stringent for a ben Noach because this is a capital crime for them and thus it is prohibited to assist them and also violates the prohibition of lifnei ivair One should not assist in any way - even to notify her that it is possible to have an abortion elsewhere even for a non- Jew. Even if there is concern that this might cause hatred (aivah). In fact there is not a problem of causing hatred when it is explained that he doesn’t want to assist in killing because even non-Jews know that abortion should not be done and many countries prohibit it as murder, Thus a religious doctor can just say that he doesn’t want to be involved in abortion as this is not a curative procedure and even is dangerous to the woman.
1) tosfot is wrong
ReplyDelete2) Rav Emden is talking nonsense
3). Rashba never said that
4) Israeli Rav, presumably Tz . E. Is also wrong.
That's quite a strong list there
This is a recurring theme with Rav Moshe, zt"l. Every time an authoritative source says something that disagrees with "the party line" it's a forgery or misprint because it should've said "the party line".
ReplyDeleteI know that Rav Moshe was criticised for some of his rulings, but did anyone raise this issue as one of their critiques?
DeleteIt's the "can of worms" problem. If a Rishon said something off the "party line" then if you don't call it a forgery or printing error, then you have to explain it and admit there might be more than one way to approach the issue, as radical as it might sound.
DeleteOr you could do what Artscroll does and just delete the comment and hope no one notices.
Tzitz eliezer is a viable alternative
DeleteWhy is he the first person to explicitly say tosafot is a mistake? There would be sources if it was generally accepted to be a mistake.
DeleteReb Moshe also claimed that a well known Ramban I think the one criticizing Avraham also never happened in addition to the statement in the Rav Yehuda HaChasid manuscript on the Torah I believe where he writes stuff similar to Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra about post mosaic insertions
ReplyDeleteA wonder how much of this is due to faulty manuscripts.
DeleteHere's a quick example. Mossad HaRav Kook's edition of Rambam's Sefer Mitzvos has footnotes detailed textual variations and corruptions that crept into the text over time. Printer's errors, overzealous copyist and the like. They got all this down because their researchers had access to old versions and even handwritten versions from centuries ago.
Did Rav Moshe, zt"l, have access to these or did he just have the photostat'd standard version full of errors and did he even know that it was full of errors?
It's like when you find an obvious mistake in a printer text and point it out and someone says "You can't say So-and-so made a mistake!" to which the reply is "No, I'm saying there's a possible printer's error and So-and-so never said any of that."