Be fruitful -- but not a fruit

Um, isn't Job No. One of Judaism to ''be fruitful and multiply?''

The first commandment given to the Human Race was stated in Genesis, when Adam and Chava were told to "be fruitful and multiply." This involves more than just conceiving and giving birth to offspring: raising and educating children is included in this commandment. Judaism places special emphasis on the birth and education of children.

Isn't the low reproduction rate of Jews a concern, at least in some circles?

Committed Jews should be concerned about the depletion of the Jewish population, especially in light of the fact that a third of the world Jewish population was exterminated in the Holocaust. Rather than making up for that loss we seem to be adding to it, especially when we take into account those Jews lost to us through assimilation and intermarriage.

Haven't Israelis been concerned that the Palestinian birthrate is outpacing theirs?

Israelis on both sides of the political spectrum always lament that high Arab birth rates represent an existential threat to Israel that dwarfs any terror strike or Iranian nuclear weapons program. These pessimists (of which I’m one) contend that non-Jewish Arabs procreate at much higher rates than Jews. Due to the semi-democratic nature of Israel, Arabs will eventually compose a majority of the population and remove the title of “Jewish State” from Israel. This outcome would re-establish the Middle East as an Arab (and likely Muslim) region where Jews would have no right to land and fear for their safety.

Okay then. So explain this. Please.

Rabbi Menachem Burstein, head of the Jewish fertility organization Puah Institute, said Thursday that "there is not one rabbinical religious authority in the world allowing a single woman to give birth."

 Speaking during an event at the Ono Academic College, Rabbi Burstein claimed that Rabbi Yuval Cherlow has reconsidered an approval given in the past to a single woman approaching the age of 40 to get pregnant from a sperm donation.

 <SNIP>

Rabbi Burstein spoke during a conference held under the title, "Parenthood at any cost?" The rabbi presented the halachic problem in giving a sperm donation to a single woman.

 "All the efforts we are making for treatments and insemination are aimed at starting a family, and here the framework of the family is damaged," he said. "Judaism does not permit one person's happiness at the expense of another, and it has been proven that a child born to a single woman from in vitro insemination suffers greatly."

Proven? Really? Where?

But what's this?

Rabbi Burstein added that his institute was dealing these days with the matter of marriage between homosexuals and lesbians.

AHA!

I agree with this comment, below the story:

Can't find a husband? No child for you!

I am against these rabbis and their archaic way of thinking. This is also plenty of evidence showing a child in a loving single-parent house hold growing up well adjusted, and equally many, many examples of a child growing up in a two-parent household with a dysfunctional relationship growing up to pass on that dysfunctionality.

So i ask you rabbis....should a woman rush out and get any man to marry in order to have a child? Seems like statistics works against you and the children I've seen don't do any better.

But I suppose your answer will be to "become Orthodox, allow a matchmaker to find you a partner, then do nothing but push out babies while your husband recites Torah". A pretty high price to pay for the joy of parenthood.

(I like this perspective on Torah and feminism.)

So anyway: Eeek! Single mothers, homosexuals and lesbians, oh my!

What's up with all these patriarchal religions anyway? Does it come down to one thing: The God who claims the most followers wins? Or be fruitful -- but not ''a fruit,'' eh? -- and multiply.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE (Aug. 18/09): Now this is exactly the sort of thing I am talking about.

Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation's security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

Interviews with doctors indicate hundreds of men had been killed, but the exact number was unclear because of the stigma associated with homosexuality in Iraq, the New York-based watchdog group said in its report.

"Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi."

Make no mistake: While they're killing them en masse in Iraq, they're still hating them in our supposedly more civilized -- and Judeo-Christian -- society.

Comments

[Kat]

Single parent families are dysfunctional? That's a smack in the face to all those war-torn families that only had one parent survive, or none survived and the children were adopted by relatives or friends.

[sooey]

People can believe whatever patriarchal malarkey they like - just don't try to return it into legislation, thanks.

[Antonia]

Glenn: get a grip. I have been writing about this subject since 2002.

http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2009/07/making-a-hash-out-of-afghanistan.html