Parshas Ki Teitzei: Mercy for Pre-Borns Will Save Jerusalem

Seventy four mitzvot, or commandments, appear in this week's Torah portion, Ki Teitzei: Devarim (Deuteronomy) 21:10-25:19. The laws and guidelines cover a wide range of topics, too numerous to address in this short forum, so we will review several pertinent to our work here at the JPLF.

Deuteronomy 22:6-7. If a bird's nest chances before you on the road, on any tree, or on the ground, and [it contains] fledglings or eggs, if the mother is sitting upon the fledglings or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother upon the young. You shall send away the mother, and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days.

Wise sages explain that this law's function is to minimize the mother bird's pain upon seeing her young stolen and killed. Yes, mothers experience heartbreak when they see their babies killed. Human mothers experience heartbreak, too, when they see their babies killed. In an abortion, the mother is right there to feel the demise of her pre-born child. Allowing this to occur goes against Torah for many reasons, including the mandate to be compassionate and merciful. It is not compassionate and merciful to put women through this emotional, psychological, and physical horror. Let's remember that mercy extends to the baby, who is alive and made in God's image, and so deserves mercy and compassion and life. HaShem knows the tendency for humans to become numb, unfeeling justifiers of torture and death, so He gave us an opportunity to practice kindness and mercy in these verses.

Deuteronomy 22:8. When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood [to be spilled] in your house, that the one who falls should fall from it [the roof].

It is our responsibility to ensure that we do not cause death or bodily harm to any innocent person. We must take actions that prevent this from happening. We can educate people about the dangers of torturing babies to death in the womb so that babies don't die and parents don't get lured into the abortion trap. We can support pregnancy care resource centers. To fail to take these and other actions or to remain silent makes us responsible for the harm done and the lives lost. Worse, yet, is leading at risk parents into danger and babies to death by enabling abortion to happen.

Deuteronomy 23:15. For the Lord, your God, goes along in the midst of your camp, to rescue you and to deliver your enemies before you. [Therefore,] your camp shall be holy, so that He should not see anything unseemly among you and would turn away from you.

Torah demands holiness in the military for guaranteed victory. Military policy that enables indiscriminate sexual activity among the troops and pays for killing the babies that are conceived not only destroys innocent pre-born citizens but puts all who serve at greater risk. This scenario is played out today in Israel and recent promotion of abortion in the US military threatens our national security and the safely of our troops.

Deuteronomy 23:18. There shall not be a prostitute of the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a male prostitute of the sons of Israel.

Easy access to chemical abortion promotes promiscuity and prostitution in all communities. For Jews, it is against Torah law to facilitate sexually exploitive behavior by promoting abortion as a Jewish value.

Deuteronomy 24:16. Fathers shall not be put to death because of sons, nor shall sons be put to death because of fathers; each man shall be put to death for his own transgression. 

Torah doesn't prescribe a death penalty for the baby when the conception of that baby is through rape or incest. Religious authorities who advise this solution do so to alleviate a mother's mental distress. This is misplaced compassion for mothers and ignorance of research that clearly shows better mental health outcomes for women who carry the baby to term than for women who participate in the demise of their child. Forced abortion in these cases often overrides a mother's instinctual desire to protect the baby, and she suffers afterward, while the perpetrator of the sexual assault avoids prosecution.

Deuteronomy 24:17. You shall not pervert the judgment of a stranger or an orphan, and you shall not take a widow's garment as security [for a loan].

Abortion profiteers regularly misuse, abuse, and manipulate pregnant women whose male partners have abandoned them and their pre-born child. Abandoned pregnant women become widows, their children fatherless. Abortion center counseling methods convince women to participate in their child's demise, turning their pre-born babies into orphans with no one to speak for their humanity or right to life. Babies get dehumanized, judged as subhuman blobs of tissue suitable only for the incinerator or the research lab. A woman living this experience loses her partner, her baby, her money, her peace of mind, her soul.

Deuteronomy 24:19. When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless and for the widow, so that the L‐rd your G‐d may bless you in all that you do.

As explained above, when a father abdicates responsibility for his pre-born child, that baby becomes fatherless, and the mother becomes widowed. When both parents abandon a pre- born child that pre-born baby becomes orphaned. Torah instructs us to provide life sustaining help to the fatherless, the widow and the orphan, and to expect blessings for doing so. The absolute last thing that should happen to that child is eviction from the womb, a life sustaining space. Curses surely plague everyone involved.

In our Haftarah this week, Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 54:1-10, the prophet likens the city of Jerusalem, abandoned by God and devoid of children after the exile, to a widow whose husband has deserted her and whose children are lost. He consoles her with a promise of a messianic age when her children, the Jews, will once again inhabit the holy city, but this time they will know the presence of God. War and suffering, sin and shame will be absent. Peace and blessing will emanate from the Holy Land into all the other nations of the world, and joy and thanksgiving will mark a new era in human flourishing.

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Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.