"The Obligation to Choose Life" - Clear Torah Declaration on the Promotion of Human Life and that Abortion is Forbidden
We can inform Americans of the authentic Torah position and help them re-direct their lives into rapidly and massively increasing the population of the United States of America. Call to Action.
Great news to report here that the Jewish Pro Life Foundation has posted the Statement on the Obligation to Choose Life. This is an extremely simple and obvious but urgently vital statement of the Torah position on abortion.
Here is the Statement. After, read on for some background on the importance of this and why it is so urgent now.
Statement on the Obligation to Choose Life
In Judaism, every human life, born and unborn, has infinite value. The life of an unborn human being cannot be terminated except in rare extenuating circumstances when there is no other option to save the life of the mother.
The media based debate is not addressing this from a true Torah perspective.
We oppose the deceitful framing of killing unborn children as a religious right and a Jewish value. Childbearing is a mitzvah and a privilege endowed to us by our blessed Creator. All men and women should fulfill this commandment, if possible.
No right to kill unborn children exists. Let abortion activists select a more truthful slogan, such as "The Right to Kill Unborn Children" which is not a right before Heaven, nor acceptable to the humane.
The way of the Torah is justice inseparably bound with mercy, charity, faithfulness and kindness. The way of the pro-abortion movement is injustice and cruelty to the defenseless child, and to the mothers who suffer physical, emotional and spiritual harm.
A person who fears G-d and faces a tragic life-threatening situation, in which the mother’s life is in immediate physical threat from the baby itself, will seek to learn the precise parameters that permit abortion under halachah. (Torah law). Judgments that recommend intentionally destroying human life at any gestational age when the mother’s life is not imperiled, do not meet strict Torah guidelines that prohibit shedding innocent blood. Opinions taken out of context that lead to misinterpretation of halachah condone acts of cruelty by right of whim. This is highly wrong, and a perversion of the intent of Torah law. We strongly object to this.
The Torah is explicitly clear. “This day, I call upon the heaven, and the earth as witnesses of you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live…” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
“He who spills the blood of man within man shall have his blood spilled, for in the image of G-d, He made man. And you, be fruitful, and multiply; and increase upon the earth, and multiply therein.” (Genesis 9:6-7).
The Torah sages explain "the blood of man within man” refers to a growing unborn child in the womb of the mother. (Talmud Sanhedrin 57b). The severity of abortion in Torah is underscored by consequences for the abortionist ranging from death at the hands of Heaven to the death penalty in a court of law. (Meshech Chochma Exodus Vayakhel 35:2; Talmud Sanhedrin 57b; Rambam Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and their Wars 9:4).
These Torah prohibitions apply both to Jews and non-Jews in all times and all places.
Let no one claim that they do not know.
Personal statement:
I join in signing this vital life-saving Torah message to the world, with additional emphasis on encouraging every human being to do their most to themselves bring more human beings into the world, and to support, encourage and assist others to do so, as a way of bringing more of the Divine Image into the world fulfilling the First Commandment and Blessing, to be Fruitful and Multiply and fill the earth with human beings. And, conclude with blessing that may G-d bless every woman who merits to conceive a child to have the strength and fortitude to bring that child to term in health, joy and prosperity.
A signature here does not constitute the signatory's endorsement of, or affiliation with, the organization and/or the other signatories.
To sign, please click here to open your email app.
If your email doesn't open, please email me directly at cecily@jewishprolifefoundation.org.
Download a pdf of this statement with signatures here.
This is an extremely simple and obvious but urgently vital statement of the Torah position on abortion. This statement is the authentic Torah message to the world.
Please take the time to read here the words of Torah Scholars throughout the generations who fearlessly spoke the truth: https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/rabbis-for-life.
For example, the Lubavitcher Rebbe: Advising an expectant mother in 1971, Rabbi Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) wrote, “Should there be those who desire to persuade [you] that — God forbid — you perform an abortion: Tell them that this constitutes deliberate murder of a creature who is as yet unable to protect himself from those who seek to murder him.”
For example, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: "Not only are Jews prohibited from having an abortion (except in the most extreme circumstances), but they are prohibited from assisting non-Jews from having an abortion too. According to halacha, abortion is prohibited for non-Jews; it’s actually a capital crime. A Jewish doctor may not perform an abortion even if it would result in antipathy towards Jews." (Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 2:73:8) In responsum 69, Rav Moshe not only categorizes abortion as bloodshed; he takes the rare step of unequivocally warning against relying on an erroneous heter for aborting Down Syndrome babies.
Again, read them all here: https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/rabbis-for-life.
Urgently, G-d Al-mighty’s Divine Guidance for humanity in the Torah needs to reach every man, woman and child. Tragically, the proliferation of abortion is horrific - 12 times the Holocaust each year, 70 million abortions worldwide. In the United States, 10 times the Holocaust, 63 million fetuses eliminated since the early 1970s.1 And in New York City, 6 out of every 10 black babies are eradicated before birth!!
Some of the foreign ideologies infiltrating the thinking of Torah observant Jews, that lead to deadly confusion:
Abortion is not a Jewish problem. False. Abortion is very much a Jewish problem with Jewish abortionists violating the Torah and many Jewish victims. Tens of thousands of Jewish children are aborted in Israel every year. Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits was quoted as saying that abortion in Israel is “mass slaughter of the innocents … posing a security problem graver than any threats of war or terror." Since 1948, 16,492 were killed in war and terror in Israel, yet there are more abortions than that every year! In other words more deaths from abortions in one year, than all the deaths from war and terror in 75 years.
Pro-Life in America is a Christian thing and Jews should not be aligned with the Christian perspective on abortion. False. The late Menachem Neremberg told me that Rabbi Avigdor Miller sent him as his personal representative and to represent the Jewish People by sitting on the dais of a major pro-life march in Washington, D.C. There he sat next to the Cardinals and Bishops. Rabbi Miller had no problem with this at all. We are not “adopting” or “advancing” the Christian viewpoint. We are stating clearly the Torah position for humanity.
Since Torah law permits abortion in extremely rare cases of direct danger to the mother, it is a religious right to have an abortion and anti-abortion laws should be opposed because they could prevent a Jewish woman from having an abortion. False, False and False. There is no religious right to have an abortion in Torah. Every law that prohibits abortion has an exception for medical emergencies. And, this argument that there might be a theoretical situation where a Jewish woman would be legally barred from having an abortion to save her life, leads to the legalization of abortion for everyone for any reason, leading to the murders of tens of millions. This new argument is a Marxist argument that has been infiltrated into Torah circles to manipulate innocent people into becoming proponents of the abortion movement. It must be exposed and opposed for what it is.
Don’t offend Americans by taking a position against abortion. False. There is nothing more offensive to an American than to be silent while tens of millions of fellow Americans are being murdered and the mothers and families left devastated by the consequences. The way to honor America and Americans is to state unequivocally that every American pregnancy should be brought to term, because that is G-d Al-mighty’s Will as clearly expressed in the Torah.
And, there is new and sinister twist - Jews are being accused in America of being pro-abortion because vocal Jews advocate the Marxist pro-abortion position. This is utterly false as those Jews are not advocating any Jewish position at all — they are being used by the Marxist Revolution. Yet, silence or equivocating statements by authentically Torah observant Jews gives wind to these false attacks - or more accurately, creates the vacuum for these false attacks.
As I wrote in an internal email to a group of Rabbis drafting the statement:
In my view, the necessity of a statement increasingly rises to the level of Pikuach Nefesh (matter of life and death) not only for the mothers and children at risk here but for the Jewish People as a whole who are being framed as abortion supporters because of the highly vocal false portrayals of Judaism as promoting abortion in a vacuum caused by the horrifying general silence or, worse, equivocating statements, that come from those who associate themselves with the Torah.
The Statement dispels the false arguments and makes clear the authentic Torah position.2
May G-d Al-mighty bless the distinguished Rabbis with the wisdom to add their names and may the Name of G-d Almighty be glorified and His Torah be great and glorious.
And, may the terrible elimination of the Divine Image through abortion cease completely.
And may G-d Al-mighty bless each and all of you involved in this effort.
Action Items:
Share this far and wide.
Read the Torah position: https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/rabbis-for-life. I know that this is the third time I have provided this link, but you really must read and read again to know that there is no room for equivocation on this issue.
Ask your Rabbi to sign the statement and show him the following footnote.3
Make a donation to the Jewish ProLife Foundation to help them spread the Statement.
Urge a woman who is the victim of abortion to access these loving resources.
Donate to organizations that provide financial assistance to women who are contemplating abortion, such as Efrat and Just One Life, which work day and night in the Holy Land to prevent abortions, and to their equivalent organizations in the United States.
Please donate generously to support this urgently needed and one-of-a-kind writing by taking out a Founding Member subscription and/or donating. Thank you.
See, for example, http://www.numberofabortions.com.
Here is an interview on the subject:
False information abounds and authentic Torah Rabbis have an obligation to speak up against falsehood.
An example of the pro-bloodshed arguments being promoted is the following article:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/abortion-is-not-murder-sometimes-its-a-mitzvah/
I researched the rabbi who authored the article and discovered that his real allegiance is a Foundation - the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. On the day I visited their site, they were promoting a forum about Moses Mendelson, a leader in the Enlightenment war against the Torah. The head of the Institute, Prof. Shai Lavi, is also the head of another foundation/institute promoting the death euthanasia agenda - the Minerva Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the End of Life.
As to what our role is as Rabbis:
Being a genuine Rov is not merely about knowing the truth. The truth is relatively easily to ascertain by learning or by observation. In fact, a non-Jew who never heard of the Torah is responsible to know the Sheva Mitzvos because he is obligated to learn what is right and wrong from observing the world. (See. R. Steif, Mitzvos Hashem).
Being a genuine Rov is about being willing to say truth clearly and publicly in the face of loud and threatening opposition.
Therefore, we don’t need the gedolim (prominent Torah scholars) to tell us or the world about the Torah position on abortion. That is already clear. It has been written on extensively and the previous generation of Gedolim spoke out clearly against abortion.
What is needed now is those who will stand up and speak the words of Torah in the face of the lies, distortions, mockery and threats.
A Rov must also understand context. The pro-death lobby is making war against G-d Al-mighty by eliminating human beings from being conceived, eliminating those conceived, convincing those who are born to eliminate themselves, and forcibly eliminating those who are still living through war and famine (see, e.g., Malthus)
The discussion of nuances in Halacha is intended to distract and confuse, to push Torah observant Jews into the defensive and to debate the nuances, which is always a losing proposition because the agenda is not the Truth, but rather to take every concession and turn it into a broader endorsement of death.
The nuances of Halacha are only relevant for the Rov in dealing with the extremely rare question of whether an abortion is necessary to save to the mother’s life.
Therefore, the Rov, in understanding this must fight the battle on the highest level which is not on the arguments of the details of Halacha but rather to promote G-d Al-mighty’s vision to expand exponentially the human population and to fill the world with human beings.