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Additionally, according to Jewish Law [Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 330:5], we'd be obligated to even violate Shabbos in order to save a unborn baby (even if there is only a possibility - rather than a certainty - of saving his or her life).
Torah sages have taught us to derive lessons, and prompt ourselves to engage in introspection, in the wake of noteworthy current events, especially on occurrence of shocking and devastating tragedies. Often, we do not understand why G-d allows individual people to suffer such incomprehensible devastation. However, we can benefit ourselves and others by how we REACT to events - by improving ourselves. When we see such indescribable evil and shocking mass-murder, how can we react to them for our own individual and communal betterment?
Perhaps, in tragic scenarios such as we've witnessed this past week, one could suggest that we could elevate our own vigilance over the taking of innocent life. Not too many people would argue with that. However, unfortunately, many would vigorously debate what "life" means. Let's deal with one very relevant example of bloodshed, for which unfortunately most of us share some responsibility: abortion-on-demand, be it in America, Israel, or other western countries.
Many Jews are unaware that Rav Moshe Feinstein (d.'86), OB"M, a premier and internationally recognized authority in Jewish Law, writes in a responsa (Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 2:73) that not only are Jews prohibited from committing abortion {except in the most extreme circumstances, specifically danger to the Mother's life} - but we are also prohibited from assisting even non-Jewish people in committing abortion. Abortion is prohibited for non-Jews too, as a capital crime [See Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, ch.9]. Even if refusing to perform an abortion would result in "Aivoh" (antipathy towards Jews), it remains prohibited for Jewish doctors [to even participate in], Rav Moshe adds.
Additionally, according to Jewish Law [Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 330:5], we'd be obligated to even violate Shabbos in order to save a unborn baby (even if there is only a possibility - rather than a certainty - of saving his or her life).
In America, approximately three thousand babies are killed - not per year, not per week, but per day. In Israel, tens of thousands of Jewish preborn children are murdered every year (1) - by Jews, under a government controlled by Jews, in a state whose raison d'etre is ostensibly to serve as a Jewish State and an international refuge for Jews. In fact, as well known to anyone familiar Jewish Law, the carnage of abortion in Eretz Yisroel (the Holy Land) is a horrific violation of Judaism. And the government, and state policy, is run in anything but a Jewish manner. Why is it that a state advertising itself worldwide as a Jewish refuge is itself one of the most dangerous places for unborn Jewish babies in the entire Mideast? And why has this situation been allowed to fester for decades?
Furthermore, we, as Jews, cannot wash our hands of responsibility for abortion in this country. Abortion legalization arguably started with New York state. The N.Y. Legislature legalized abortion almost half a century ago, by just a single vote. Several years later, after abortion on demand became acceptable around the US, five Supreme Court judges betrayed their mandate and fabricated a fictive right to abortion. Rather than interpreting the US Constitution, they imputed their political aspirations to it. As a result - and due to a mentality (some dub a secularist form of "idolatry") known as 'Judicial Supremacy' (paying homage to all edicts SCOTUS-decreed) - government officials, and society as a whole, allow mass-murder of preborn infants to be perpetrated under the thin veneer of "Law." This, despite what even NYS Governor Cuomo admitted in a campaign speech last year: there is no right to abortion in the US Constitution.(2)
Thank G-d, some states, like Alabama, are moving to rectify the mass-killing of the preborn. Others, like NY, are legalizing full-blown infanticide. We, as Jews must take a clear stand. The Supreme Court is responsive somewhat to public opinion. The more we lobby on the state level for protection of babies (pre- and post-birth), and the more we put our money where our mouths should be, the greater the likelihood we'll merit Divine intervention, and see positive changes of substance.
Specifically, we as individuals and a community need to become more educated about the mass-murder of millions of Jewish babies perpetrated since the Nazi Holocaust (when it was done out of overt Jew-hatred), and tens of millions of non-Jewish babies in America alone. We'd learn that we have multiple options available to us.
For example: right now, in the US, we can help fight the efforts of the Left to pass even more odious pro-abortion state legislation by vocally exposing the most repulsive elements of such bills. We ought focus on their post-birth infanticide provisions, as well as the dangers such bills pose to mothers even those who consider themselves "pro-choice" - who do opt to carry their babies to term. By doing so, we have more of a prospect of stopping the worst legislation, even in leftwing states, by leveraging opposition from some pro-abortion people as well.
In Israel, the religious and rightwing parties must make stopping abortion-on-demand a priority. Even on secular national-security grounds alone, one has a strong argument against what unfortunately has assumed the contours of a self-perpetuated "ethnic-cleansing," G-d forbid.
Another way to combat abortion in Israel is to promote the policy of a professional army, rather than the current system, where most citizens are drafted. This policy shift would do away with the draft altogether, including the draft of 18 year-old girls into the military. Their female draft policy is largely responsible for the IDF being infamous for rampant promiscuity (3) and sexual assault (4) - and it's resulting abortion epidemic.(5)
Although many secular women may continue their lifestyle regardless of where they are, huge numbers of more traditional and religiously oriented girls and women would be saved from the terribly permissive and exploitation-infused environment of the IDF - by simply stopping the drafting of girls. Who knows how many abortions would be avoided by this one change alone. Many traditional girls, and some secular ones as well - particularly those of sefardic extraction - would naturally gravitate towards rediscovering their religious roots (after the secularists uprooted their families from the Torah-centered lifestyle of their countries of origin).
If advocacy for a professional military is not deemed practical, at the very least, the religious and rightwing parties should seek to abolish the draft of women. Drafting women is absolutely prohibited according to Jewish Law. According to Torah-authorities across the spectrum, a girl or woman may not serve in the military under any conditions, in great measure due to the immorality rampant in any such environment. The abortion epidemic in the Israeli military is, in part, a natural consequence of drafting women (and, arguably, of allowing women to serve in the military even on a volunteer basis). This must end. And end it most certainly will, one way or another. It's far better if the drafting of women end by our communal initiative, rather than in far more ominous ways, G-d forbid. May we merit to help effect positive change in the U.S. as well as Israel, by revealing the truth, its enemies, and its true friends.
Binyomin Feinberg. Contact Mr. Feinberg at feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com.
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TiM_AtA6Xo&feature=youtu.be
(3) https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/12/idf-sees-spike-in-sexual-harassment-complaints-in-2018/
(5) https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-to-provide-morning-after-pills-in-effort-to-decrease-abortions/
For eye-opening news updates and perspectives from the Israeli front-lines of the Culture Wars, see:https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/v3-travel-advisory-to-all-draft-age.html
For other US news:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hk9i4J-2INBgfSykQk12FBAyklVZ3VLZUwQvahRkJ84/edit?usp=sharing
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