Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chief Jewish Rabbis in Israel: Abortion Delays Coming of Messiah, Back Pro-Life
Life News ^ | 12/29/09 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 12/29/2009 4:27:37 PM PST by wagglebee

Jerusalem, Israel (LifeNews.com) -- The top two Jewish rabbis in Israel sent a letter on Monday to their colleagues denouncing abortion. They said that abortion kills thousands of Israeli babies a year and delays the coming of the Messiah and they promised to do more to promote pro-life and pregnancy help efforts.

Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar sent a letter yesterday to all of the state-employed Jewish rabbis saying they would "strengthen" the efforts of the pro-life council in the rabbinate to help reduce abortions.

The letter says "the vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and Halacha severely prohibits them" and says as many as 50,000 abortions are done annually in Israel.

They Jewish leaders also said abortions "delay the redemption" by postponing the coming of the Messiah.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper indicates the letter bases the statement on the Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Niddah which says each baby that is born brings the Jewish people closer to redemption.

"The redemption does not take place until all the souls are brought out of their storing place," the Talmud states.

The letter goes on to condemn "the killing of fetuses in their mother's womb."

The Post indicated the rabbis' letter said they would encourage local Jewish teachers to do more to promote the pro-life ethic in their Shabbat sermons, passing out pro-life literature to couples seeking pre-marital counseling, and developing closer ties with the pro-life organization Efrat to change public opinion.

The letter, which has the support of the chief rabbis of the council, urges Jewish teachers to devote their January 9 Shabbat sermon to emphasizing the severe halachic prohibition against abortions.

Jews point to the teachings in the first chapter of the book of Exodus when Hebrew midwives Pu'ah and Shifra refuse to listen to the King of Egypt's order to kill all male babies.

"But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded," the scriptures say.

The Jewish leaders say this should be a basis for an annual denunciation of abortion.

Chief Rabbi of Beersheba Yehuda Deri has headed up the pro-life council on the rabbinic council and Dr. Eli J. Schussheim is the head of the Efrat pro-life organization.

In December 2007, the chief rabbinic council in Israel released a new opinion confirming that abortions constitute a “grave sin” and saying they are delaying the coming of the Messiah.

"The vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and strictly forbidden according to halacha because they are carried out even when the pregnancies do not endanger the mother's health," the rabbis wrote.

They said those kinds of abortions for socioeconomic reasons or the mother not wanting the baby at the time are delaying the coming of the Messiah, who Jews believe was not represented by Jesus Christ.

Rabbi Barry Freundel, a widely respected Jewish leader in the U.S., says, according to the Mishnah, a record of oral interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures, abortion is only permitted when a woman is in "hard travail" and her life is in danger.

He said the instances where a pregnancy poses a serious threat to the mother are very rare -- so Jews should oppose most abortions.

Not even in the most lenient interpretations, Rabbi Freundel told a group at a National Right to Life convention, is there anything that allows abortion on demand.

Before Congress gave final approval to the first partial-birth abortion ban, he obtained more than 200 signatures of rabbis from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox traditions on a statement supporting the pro-life bill.

Last year, the oldest Orthodox Jewish Rabbinic organization in the country, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, issued a historic declaration on voting and abortion. It said Jewish voters should not vote for candidates who support abortion, calling them "antithetical" to Jewish values.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; judaism; moralabsolutes; prolife; rabbis
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-26 last
To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

21 posted on 12/31/2009 6:23:53 AM PST by SJackson (In wine there is wisdom, In beer there is freedom, In water there is bacteria.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
Unfortunately they were almost completely ignored by American Jews.

Not the Orthodox or Chassidic. Orthodox Judaim is strongly pro-life.
22 posted on 12/31/2009 6:28:53 AM PST by Tzfat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NYer

“the Jewish faith has allowed for abortion, up until now”

Absolutely false.

Abortion was historically only permitted when the mother (and thus the baby also) are almost certainly going to die -— e.g., when there was severe pre-eclamsia and the mother’s blood pressure was 200/150 or a breached birth or the like.

Of course that was the ruling in the BRONZE AGE.

In the 21st century, the solution to that problem is a cesarian birth.

Ergo, abortion is, for all practical purposes (other than some weird situation where medical care was impossible — war zone or something) forbidden under Jewish law.

Ergo,


23 posted on 12/31/2009 7:52:50 AM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Jewbacca
Thank you for the clarification; I stand corrected. My initial resonse stemmed from what I had been told by various Jewish friends over the years. Only recently, I read an article, on the silence of the Jews on abortion. The Catholic position is rock solid and unshakable; hence the prayer vigils in front of abortuaries. Are there Jewish groups that also conduct prayer vigils in front of abortion clinics?
24 posted on 12/31/2009 8:04:30 AM PST by NYer ("One Who Prays Is Not Afraid; One Who Prays Is Never Alone" - Benedict XVI)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: NYer

“Are there Jewish groups that also conduct prayer vigils in front of abortion clinics?”

Probably in Israel; in the USA, being such a minority, I think we would be uncomfortable doing that, just because we have “keep your head down or it will get cut off” mentality.

Comes from being a target too often.


25 posted on 12/31/2009 9:30:48 AM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
Chief Jewish Rabbis in Israel: Abortion Delays Coming of Messiah, Back Pro-Life

I'm still waiting to hear from the Christian and Muslim rabbis.

26 posted on 12/31/2009 9:57:07 AM PST by Slings and Arrows ("The solution to every ill is a cat." --TheOldLady)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-26 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson