Hey ... I appreciate the link.
How do you decide between the authority of different poskim? Is it all a matter of personal preference for one or another's intepretation?
I've been transcribing these tapes I hope to have permission to post here soon (once I have someone who speaks Hebrew help me proofread the terms and phrases he includes). As a Catholic, of course, the notion of sects or conflicting opinions that cannot be decided by a recognized single authority is alien to me. Just as I've learned a lot about Protestantism here on the forum (never realized Lutheranism and Calvinism were eponymous faiths, even! =), I'm trying to learn more about Judaism.
I'm particularly struck by Rabbi Waldenburg's exceptions into the second trimester for Tay Sachs children. I guess I'll never quite understand how it is subjecting a child to a speedy abortion somehow saves them from the suffering that is a natural death after many years of life.
There is a Jewish attorney in our offices with whom I've had some long talks on this very subject. His second son died at age 5 or so from Tay Sachs. Would he have traded the years they had together to spare his boy, his wife, his sons, himself the suffering. Absolutely not. Does he understand the aborting of others or the sifting of embryos to subvert God's will that some children -- particularly those of especially pure heritage -- be struck down with Tay Sachs? Indeed.
He is a most wonderful man. Very thoughtful, very kind, truly charitable and possessed of that silent strength and wisdom that comes from true suffering. I'll bet he's probably already in touch with the UPenn guy but I may pass the link on just to be sure. He spends a great deal of his personal time working with parental support groups and closely following the progress of embryonic stem cell testing and other related issues.
I think sometimes that folks get so blown away by my all or nothing recognition and defense of objective truths that they forget I have a heart. I have never condemned any of my friends who had abortions even in spite of my attempts to dissuade them (which they expected, knowing me). I've only shown them love and been there for them once the real suffering began in earnest.
Anyway ... thanks for the lead.