Thoughts on Abortion and Halacha

Abortion is an issue that should be weighed in light of the interests of the mother, the fetus, and society at large. In each case it is different. But there are cases in which it is not only acceptly, but the morally correct thing to do. For example, should a pregnancy endanger the mother's life, it would be immoral for doctor's and lawyer's to deny her access to an abortion. If a government were to restrict abortions it would negate the possibility of doing the correct thing in such a situation, even if it were to prevent abortions made in the wrong situations as well. The absence of government regulations on this issue allows the doctor and mother to decide what is the best action for that specific situation, allowing the right course of action to be taken in all cases. If abortion is restricted by the government it would be unlawful for doctors and mothers to chose this as a course of action even when it is appropriate.

Jewish arguements about abortion generally result in a broad consensus of authorities who find abortion to be morally justifiable.

Exodus 21:22- the punishment for causing the death of a fetus is a pecuniary fine while the punishment for causing the death of the mother is death (Talmudic requirements about witnesses and evidence standards make execution virtually impossible in Jewish law, and I should add that the Reform rabbis of the Cental Council of American Rabbis issued a statement in which the use of the death penalty was condemned in all cases. And Maimonides stated that this passage does not mean that the perpetrator should be killed, but only that his soul is not cleansed of the crime by monetary payment as it is in the case of the death of the fetus, and the criminal is required to beg for forgiveness and will serve punishment at God's hands). However, the example shown from the biblical passages cited above clearly designates the life of the fully living mother as more valuable than the life of the fetus.

Babylonian Talmud; Yevamot 69b:
The embryo is considered to be mere water until the 40th day.

Babylonian Talmud; Sanhedrin 72b:
(Lav nefesh hu) The fetus is not a person

Mishna; Oholot 7,6:
It may be necessary to sacrifice a potential life to save a fully existent life.
If the mother is endangered, the fetus is to be dismembered limb by limb and removed to save her life. Once 1/2 the body or the head of the baby emerge from the mother, neither may be willfully sacrificed for the sake of the other. This makes medical sense too, because the mother is at high risk until after the head has fully emerged.

Rambam (Maimonides) classifies a baby that is more than 1/2 emerged that endangers the life of the mother as rodef, or a pursuer/aggressor. According to some interpretations of Jewish law one is entitled to kill a rodef. Thus Rambam, a doctor as well as a rabbi, allowed the sacrifice of the baby in order to preserve the life of the mother even after the child was more than 1/2 emerged, thereby becoming a full life. It is interesting that he applied this explicitly to a baby that is 1/2 emerged, and not to the baby who's head has fully emerged, because, once again, it appears that Jewish law has taken medical considerations into account, understanding that a baby emerging feet-first is more likely to constitute a threat to the mother even after is deemed a complete life than a baby who's head has already emerged (which Rambam does not consider as a potential threat to the mother).

Rambam:
The sages ruled that when a woman has difficulty in giving birth, one dismembers the fetus in the womb--either with drugs or surgery--because the fetus is like a pursuer (rodef) trying to kill her. Once its head emerges, it may not be touched, for we may not set aside one life for another; this is the natural course of the world.

More recent legal precedent within Judaism includes the following:

If the fetus is diagnosed with a terminal illness such as Tay-Sachs disease, or if it is not expected to live for the first 30 days after birth and is certain to die in childhood, the fetus may be aborted. However, non-terminal genetic defects are not grounds for abortion. Thus, a mother is not permitted to abort a fetus because she does not want to raise a mentally retarded child.

Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel ruled [Responsa, Mishpetei Uziel, vol. III] that abortion was acceptable in a case in which the mother would be made deaf in the course of her pregnancy or childbirth unless she aborted the fetus.

Rabbi Ben Uziel also ruled that abortion was acceptable in a case in which a mother was driven mad and exhibited suicidal tendencies due to stress about her pregnancy. The mother's life was deemed more valuable than the partial life of the fetus.

He also ruled that abortion was acceptable if doctors decided that a cessarian section delivery was necessary, and the mother did not want to go through with such a procedure. The reasoning was two-fold: 1) that the procedure would cause her great anxiety and 2) that it would weaken her womb and endanger the lives of the subsequent children to whom she planned to give birth.

In cases of rape the mother has been sanctioned in her decision to seek an abortion to save her from suffering mental and emotional anguish.

In a case (before the present-day conveniences such as baby formula) in which a woman became pregnant in a remote area in which no potential wet nurse could be found, and the mother was unable to produce milk, the preganancy was permitted to be terminated to prevent the child from dying of starvation after birth.

Jewish opinion generally holds that the fetus gradually aquires more of a soul from its 40th day until either its head or 1/2 of its body have emreged, making it complete life only at the moment of birth. The soul, or partial soul as it may be, of the fetus is considered to be pure and clean, and is assured a portion of heaven should it die.

Most rabbis agree that the govenment must not interfere in abortion-related issues, or other medical issues, but allow those impacted by the decision to decide for themselves from all medical possibilities in order to allow for the most lives to be saved as is possible. Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbinic councils in the United States explicitly oppose any government interference in issues relating to abortion and birth control, and most rabbis encourage wider availibility of contraceptive devices and greater abortion access. The Humanistic and Renewal movements lack rabbinic councils that could make statements on such issues, but it could be easily assumed that leaders of such movements would hold similar or even more permissive points of view. Ultimately the highest obligations in Jewish law are to save lives and to seek and "provoke" peace (coincidentally, rodef shalom means to provoke/pursue peace).

While rabbis advise that a woman seek medical and spiritual counsel before deciding to have an abortion, and while rabbis may decide that a given situation does not call for an abortion to be used, they do not retain any power other than that of persuasion in granting or denying access to such procedures. They ask that governments not interfere in this process, that doctors consider whether or not to perform any given abortion based upon the specific situation, and that women in such a position carefully consider their options and seek to avoid such a situation if possible in the future. Most would encourage the use contraception, and government action to assist in the distribution of such technologies, and the dissemination of information pertaining to them.

*info source: click here for knowledge

Urgent Action Greece

Amnesty International: Greek Conscientious Objectors Detained for refusal to participate in the killing of Iraqis. Take Action!

Urgent Action Israel

Appeal for action - ISRAEL/OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: Administrative detention order repeatedly renewed - Amnesty International

Here's an urgent action about human rights violations in Ha'aretz Hakadosh.

Go to the Amnesty website to find more urgent actions relating to other countries. Unfortunately there are plently of them from all over the world.

Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. You can make a difference. Support Amnesty International: Just click here to learn more.

More Chassidut

Beth referred to this tale in one of her comments off of the post entitled Autonomy and Unity.
I tracked it down in one of my books and here it is.

Moshe Leib of Sasov of the School of Rabbi Schmelke of Nikolsburg:

When it is Good to Deny the Existence of God:

Rabbi Moshe Leib said:
"There is no quality and there is no power of man that was created to no purpose. And even base and corrupt qualities can be uplifted to serve God. When, for example, when haughty self-assurance is uplifted it changes into a high assurance in the ways of God. But to what end can the denial of God have been created? This too can be uplifted through deeds of charity. For if someone comes to you and asks for help, you shall not turn him off with pious words, saying: 'Have faith and take your troubles to God!' You shall act as if there were no God, as if there were only one person in all the world who could help this man, only yourself!"

That may be one of my favorite statements of the Chasidic tradition, the uplifting of all acts for the sevice of God and humankind through good deeds, returning the scattered inner sparks of the divine to Heaven. And it fits excellently with the religious humanism of my previous post (unity and autonomy) without abandoning a drop of pietism. What these people were in their day we must be today; we must not be them because we live in a different world (see Shavuot post for more on reclaiming the Torah in each generation, by each person).

Anarchism of Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

From Chapter 10 of The Little Prince

'Ah! Here's a subject!' the king exclaimed when he caught sight of the little prince.

And the little price wondered, 'how can he know who I am if he's never seen me before?' He didn't realize that for kings the world is extremely simplified: All men are subjects.

'Approach the throne so I can get a better look at you,' said the king, very proud of being a king for someone at last.

The little prince looked around for a place to sit down, but the planet was covered by the magnificent ermine cloak. So he remained standing, and since he was tired, he yawned.

'It is a violation of etiquette to yawn in a king's presence,' the monarch told him. 'I forbid you to do so.'

'I can't help it,' answered the little prince, quite embarrassed. 'I've made a long journey, and I haven't had any sleep . . .'

'Then I command you to yawn,' said the king. 'I haven't seen anyone yawn for years. For me yawns are a curiosity. Come on, yawn again! It is an order.'

'That intimidates me . . . I can't do it now,' said the little prince, blushing deeply.

'Well, well!' the king replied. 'Then I command you to yawn sometimes and sometimes to . . .'

He was sputtering a little, and seemed annoyed.

For the king insisted that his authority be universally respected. He would tolerate no disobedience, being an absolute monarch. But since he was a kindly man, all his commands were reasonable. 'If I were to command,' he'd often say, 'if I were to command a generral to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.'

'May I sit down?' the little prince timidly inquired.

'I command you to sit down,' the king replied, majestically gathering up a fold of his ermine robe.

and later:

'One must command from each what each can perform,' the king went on. 'Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump into the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable.'

. . . 'You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait, according to my science of governance, until conditions are favorable.'

. . . 'The little prince, having completed his preparations, had no desire to aggrieve the old monarch. 'If your majesty desires to be promptly obeyed, he should give me a reasonable command. He might command me, for instance, to leave before this minute is up. Is seems to me that the conditions are favorable. . .'

The king having made no answer, the little prince hesitated at first, and then, with a sigh, took his leave.

'I make you my ambassador,' the king hastily shouted after him. He had a great air of authority.

'Grown ups are so strange,' the little prince said to himself as he went on his way.

Unity and Autonomy

Assumption: Humans have free will.
A purely mechanistic universe does not spontaneously create beings with free will beyond its control.
The existence of a distinct omnipotent deity is irreconciable with the notion of human free will.

Assumption: There is right and wrong.
A purely mechanistic system does not properly explain reality because it negates morality, free will and human significance.
A universe of divine predestiny fails as well because it negates free will and absolves humans of all moral accountability.

Conclusion: Human autonomy and creativity is only explained by the existence of a supernatural force of which we, and the rest of the universe are a part.

Conclusion: We are obligated to act accordingly:
Ends do not justify means, but means justify ends.
The result is sanctified by the process.
Just action at each step of the way.

Chassidus: The Commandment to Love
"Question: We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. How can I do this if my neighbor has wronged me?

Answer: You must understand these words rightly. Love your neighbor as something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. Each is a spark from the original soul, and this soul is inherent in all souls, just as your soul is inherent in all the parts of your body. It may come to pass that your hand will make a mistake and strike you. But would you then take a stick and chastise your hand because it lacked understanding, and so increase your pain? It is the same if your neighbor, who is of one soul with you, wrongs you because of his lack of understanding. If you punish him, you only hurt yourself.

Question: But if I see a man who is wicked before God, how can I love him?

Answer: Don't you know that the primordial soul came out of the essence of God, and that every human soul is a part of God? And will you have no mercy on man, when you see that one of his holy sparks has been lost in a maze and is almost stifled?"

Haliburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects, the Defense Department announced on Thursday.

Israeli Law, Halacha and the Occupation

*Note: This is a legal arguement I have never seen used anywhere else. It is not based in how law is practiced, but in how I think it should be. A return to the borders recommended below would be different than my proposal for what necessarily should be done. But I view this as Israel's legal responsibility. If Israel breaks it, as it likely will (unfortunately, with my approval), it should recognize what it owes the Palestinians in the negotiation process, offering some form of compensation.

In the absence of a constitution, the Israeli Declaration of Independence is the only standing source of Israeli Law. It states, of the newly established state:

"...it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel...
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East."

Israeli secular law and traditional Jewish law both condemn the occupation of Palestinian lands. Not only is Israel bound by its own law to withdraw to the 1948 borders, but the 1947 UN partition plan borders. Additionally, house demolitions, discriminatory zoning, check-points, olive grove destruction, imprisonment without due process, and torture are all crimes carried out by the Israeli government and condemned by Halakhic law (prohibitions on destroying trees, homes, uprooting people, executing without a fair trial, "kidnapping," and breaking oaths, such as the Declaration of Independence) and secular (Israeli and international) law.

Rabbis for Human Rights; The R. Ascherman Trial

Rabbi Arik Ascherman (photo from RHR)



R. Ascherman being arrested in his battle for justice.
-photo found with an interesting article about Jewish America's (real, pro-peace anti-AIPAC) feelings toward Zionism from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

The Rabbi Arik Ascherman (Director of Rabbis for Human Rights) Trial

Rabbis for Human Rights is a great group committed to the pursuit of peace and preservation of human life and dignitiy. Not only do they present an entire worldview centered around human rights, framing issues as healthcare, terrorism, urban planning, state-sponsored benefits for single parents, and nearly every other major issue as fundamental human rights issues. Not only do they know and use the rabbinic tradition well to augment their human rights advocacy. Not only do they have an extensive and well organized webpage and a North America chapter ( Rabbis for Human Rights North America). But they have an excellent director, Rabbi Arik Ascherman who put himself on the line in front of an Israeli military bulldozer to save a Palestinian family's house, and has been through numerous court precedings, defending himself skillfully the whole way, turning his hearings into a trial about the entire policy of house demolitions (which, by the way was initiated by our good buddy, the corrupt war criminal, Ariel Sharon when he was a military officer in the Gaza Strip as a younger man). To provide fair background I should explain the other sides view the best that I can: these homes are allegedly terrorist meeting houses and/or homes built without legal permits. However, the issue remains that families live in them, and the act of turning them out on the streets is a violation of international human rights standards, halakhah (including such injunctions as not to uproot people from their homes, not to destroy anything necessary for life or that could even be used to help life--even in an act of war, and the general spirit of the tradition), and Israel's own security interests (kicking people out of their homes isn't going to make them any more likely to want to make peace). The policy of home demolitions and ridiculous zoning regulations is simply a despicable act of chauvinistic territorial nationalism designed to oppress the Palestinian people. The link at the top of this text-block has links to an extensive library of court statements, rabbinic quotations and statements by R. Ascherman and the rabbis who support him.

Ask Congress to Establish an Independent Commission and to Call for a Special Counsel

To mark the upcoming United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26th, I thought it would be fitting to post this link to the Amnesty International USA action page to push for an independent investigation of the conditions at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other secret centers.

Take Action!

Shavuot

This photo comes from the University of Texas, Austin Chabad House webpage

Today marks the 3,317 year anniversary of the covenant at Sinai (by the lunar calendar). Today the Ten Commandments are read aloud from the Torah, and each individual accepts anew their own covenant with God. This occassion is an opportunity for all to re-examine what it is that they are loyal to, who they are and want to be, and to set forth their own constitution, their own laws and covenants that stand stronger than the laws created by politicians and social norms. Rabbi Waskow's thoughts on a rendition of the Ten Commandments made by the Direct Action Comittee of Jewish Voice for Peace may be useful to those who wish to reconsider biblical law without diminishing the value of the Torah, nor that of their own modern values. Some may see this recreation of the covenant as a break with tradition that robs religion of its significance. Chassiddus explains the value of making the covenant anew in a personal relationship, providing a precedent for R. Waskow's work. To that end I present a saying of the BeShT, relying upon Martin Buber's collection and translation as found on p. 48 of the 1991 Schocken books reprinting of his work (foreword by Chaim Potok) "Tales of the Hasidim."

The Baal Shem Tov said:
"We say: 'God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob,' and not: 'God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' for Isaac and Jacob did not base their work on the searching and service of Abraham; they themselves searched for the unity of the Maker and his service."

From this we learn that God must be found in each generation. Yet, this does not explicitly extend to each individual the responsibility to continually renew their own covenant with God. For this we turn to Rashi.

Rashi's commentary on Tehillah 1:1-2 (the first two lines of the first psalm) explains that each can, and must accept the Law upon themselves and make it their own. The lines read: "Praiseworthy is the man that walked not in the counsel of the wicked, and stood not in the path of the sinful, and sat not in the session of scorners. But his desire is in the Torah of Hashem (b'Torah Hashem), and in His Torah (uvtorato) he meditates day and night." Rashi interprets: "'And in His Torah'-- this can also be rendered 'And in his Torah,' referring to the man who desires Torah. At first the text calls it 'Torah Hashem/the Torah of God,' but after he has toiled to understand it, it is considered as his and is called 'Torato/his own Torah.'" By making the Law one's own, wickedness and sinfulness (Hata'im: sinful, understood to be accidently transgression) may be avoided. Likewise the ammoral and immoral pressures exerted on the individual by modern society and government may be resisted only by those who have meditated "day and night" upon the Law, taken it upon themselves, and made it their own.

Each must labor to find their own law within their own conscience and soul. And at last, here is the link to R. Waskow's comments on the Jewish Voice for Peace DAC restatement of the Ten Commandments: R. Waskow's comments

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Pictire up in profile

This is really being posted Aug. 11, 2005 but I altered it so that it would sit here in the archives. I needed to make a new post so that my profile would update itself in the sidebar.

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Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

See Amnesty International's site: Amnesty International on the ICC

The Rome Statute provides for the creation of a permanent international court to try those accused of comitting genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. It was adopted by the international community in 1998, with the USA being among only 7 nations to vote against it. The court came to sit in the Hague in 2002 (like the International Court of Justice which heard cases such as that of the Israeli separation barrier, forcing it to be re-routed--see the Israeli communist party site at Hadash for more on this case). Amnesty International has backed progress toward the creation of an international court since 1993. Yet, numerous countries, the USA included, are still resistant to the idea, and have refused to ratify the Rome Statute. Though Clinton signed it in 2000, Bush has reversed US policy toward the Rome Statute since taking office, and in 2002 Bush formally nullified Clinton's signing of the statute and has moved to weaken the power of the court, seeking to limit its jurisdiction from including cases involving American citizens. I would urge all to visit the Amnesty site (link above this block of text) to learn more, and to participate in suggested actions to increase the number of national ratifications of the Rome Statute, and to go to the Hadash page for information about (the refuseniks and) the separation barrier, and the ICJ's ruling. International standards of human rights are not only necessary, but need a well-organized legal mechanism to back up the good-will of humanitarians around the world.

Poem: by Hebrew poet Yitzhak Lamdan: "Masada"

Here's a poem I was reading today which I felt compelled to post. I saw it on p. 175 of "Zionism and the Creation of a New Society," published by Brandeis University Press, written by Ben Halpern and Jehuda Reinharz.


Who are you that come, stepping heavy in silence?
--The remnant.
Alone I remained on the day of great slaughter.
Alone, of father and mother, sisters and brothers.
Saved in an empty cask hid in a courtyard corner.
Huddled, a child in the womb of an anxious mother.
I survived.
Days upon days in fate's embrace I cried and begged
for mercy:
Thy deed it is, O God, that I remain.
Then answer: Why?
If to bear the shame of man and the world.
To blazon it forever--
Release me! The world unshamed will flaunt this shame
As honor and spotless virtue!
And if to find atonement I survive
Then Answer: Where?
So importuning a silent voice replied:
"In Masada!"
And I obeyed that voice and so I came.
Silent my steps will raise me to the wall,
Silent as all the steps filled with the dread
Of what will come.
Tall, tall is the wall of Masada.
Deep, deep is the pit at its feet.
And if the silent voice deceived me,
From the high wall to the deep pit
I will fling me.
And let there be no sign remaining,
And let no remnant survive.

The Draft

In light of increasing military over-extension, the idea of reinstituting the draft has been tossed around by those high in the commanding heights of the American government. If the draft comes back, I'm already certain that I will not be going to fight regardless of the government's wishes. For those who may be less certain, here are some quotes on this topic from Jewish sources:

Leviticus Rabbah, Tzav IX, 9 to Numbers Rabbah, Hukkat, XIX, 27:
"Great is peace, for all blessing are contained in it... Great is peace, for God's name is peace... It is written: 'Seek peace and pursue it.' (Psalm 34.15). The Law does not command you to run after or pursue the other commandments, but only to fulfill them upon the appropriate occasion. But peace you must seek in your own place and pursue it even to another place as well."

Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 7a: **This quote comes from the Jewish Peace Fellowship packet Wrestling with Your Conscience**
"Murder may not be practiced to save one's life... Even as one who came before Raba and said to him: 'The governor of my town has ordered me, "Go, and kill so and so; if not, I will slay thee",' Raba answered him: 'let him rather slay you than that you should commit murder; who knows that your blood is redder? Perhaps his blood is redder.'"

Maimonides Code "Treatise on Kings and Wars," Chapter VII, Law 7:
"When seige is laid to a city for the purpose of capture, it may not be surrounded on all four sides but only on three in order to give an opportunity for escape to those who would flee to save their lives."

BT: Pirkei Avot 1:12:
"Be of the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing it, loving your fellow creatures, and drawing them nearer to the Torah."

Mishnah Sanhedrin 4.5:
"He who saves a single life, it is attributed to him as if he had saved the entire world, and he who destroys a single life, it is as if he had destroyed the entire world."

Deut. 5-8: (laws for a draft):
"...'Whatever man has built a new house and not consecrated it, let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And whatever man has planted a vineyard and not enjoyed it yet, let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man enjoy it. And whatever man has betrothed a woman and not wed her, let him go and return to his house, lest another man wed her.' And the overseers shall speak further to the troops and say: 'Whatever man is afraid and faint of heart, let him go and return to his house, that he not shake the heart of his brothers like his own heart.'"

Welcome to Ha'emet

Ha'emet means "the truth" in Hebrew. I hope that this blog will not only allow me to share my thoughts and opinions with others, but also to increase the level of awareness of at least some of my readers. While the subject matter will cover a wide variety of topics, you can count on posts about politics, human rights, Judaism, Israel and peace (all from a decidedly radical point of view).