Parshas Pinchas: Stop the Plague of Abortion Now

The Torah portion this week, Pinchas: Bamidbar (Numbers) 25:10-30:1, opens as God expresses great pleasure with Pinchas for his bold action against shameless indecency within the community. Though Pinchas has his critics, God rewards him for showing initiative and self sacrifice sufficient to stop a plague that kills 24,000 and threatens future generations.

Only Caleb and Joshua survive the original exodus from Egypt nearly 40 years ago. God orders another headcount to facilitate territorial possession in the Promised Land, along with divinely determined lots and equity of inheritance for men and women. Joshua assumes the leadership position. The portion closes with a detailed account of the ritual sacrifices and festival observances that will be required once the people are settled in their new home.

The Haftarah portion for Pinchas, Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1-2:3, showcases the undeniably valuable human being in the womb. When Jeremiah objects to his prophetic appointment, God reassures him, saying, “When I had not yet formed you in the womb, I knew you, and when you had not yet emerged from the womb, I had appointed you; a prophet to the nations I made you.” 

Pinchas acts to stop serious, life threatening practices as religious leaders and trusted elders stand by doing nothing. He recognizes the menace and saves Jewish society from itself. Not only does he act against a very powerful family who can exact retribution upon him, he also acts against prevailing social mores and political power. Though viewed by his peers as zealous and unbalanced, God judges him righteous, a fearless defender of holiness, blessing him and his descendants with the priestly mantle.

Modern Jewish culture faces great danger from internal moral disintegration due to secularization bolstered by many hundreds of years of misinterpreted Jewish law and mistranslated biblical text related to pregnancy and the status of the unborn child. For most Jews, modern Jewish law in this area is now significantly different from the original ethical and moral legal structure that found life from conception to be of inestimable value.

Two examples come to mind. The first is the original translation of Genesis 9:6. The accepted translation is different than the original translation proffered by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha, zr"l, Talmudist, teacher and student of Rabbi Hillel.

“He who spills the blood of man within man shall have his blood spilt, for in the image of God made He man. And you, be fruitful, and multiply; fill the earth, and multiply therein.”

The Talmud interprets "the blood of man within man" as to include an unborn child in the womb of the mother.  Things that are prohibited under the Noahide laws are also prohibited to Jews. 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. Citation here, 

The later translation reads, “He who spills the blood of man, by man shall have his blood spilt, for in the image of God made He man. And you, be fruitful, and multiply; fill the earth, and multiply therein.” This suggests an entirely different meaning.

The second example is two different translations of Exodus 21:22-23. "And should men quarrel and hit a pregnant woman, and a premature birth results but there is no fatality, he shall surely be punished, when the woman's husband makes demands of him, and he shall give [restitution] according to the judges' [orders]. But if there is a fatality, you shall give a life for a life,"

The actual Hebrew text in the Torah is

וְאִם-יַשְׁכְּבוּ אֲנָשִׁים וְהִכִּיתוּ אִשָּׁה הָרָה וְצָאוּ בָנֶיהָ וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה פֶּסֶן וְיַעֲנָשׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר נַעֲנָשׁ עַל-בַּעַל הָאֲשֶׁר וְיַעֲנָשׁ

The accepted translation of this verse reads, and a miscarriage results..... This version has long been used by abortion advocates to conclude that the value of an unborn child is not worthy of legal protection under Jewish law because it is given less value than a born person. This translation has no basis in the Hebrew because the word for miscarriage ,הַפָּלָה, does not appear anywhere in the Torah text. Instead, the words used are וְיָדָיהָ יָצְאוּ וְלֹא יִהְיֶה אסון, the child comes out but there is no fatality, ie, a premature birth.

These and other creative translations have become legal precedent used by our modern day rebels to decimate Jewish culture. If you doubt this, visit the NCJW's Repro Shabbat that celebrates Exodus 21:22-23 as the conclusive evidence that babies in the womb have no legal protections in Jewish law. This celebration causes thousands of Jewish babies dying by painful abortion every year, their destinies denied, their mothers exploited, manipulated, and damaged; their fathers deprived of responsibility and the joy of parenthood.

Throughout his lifetime, Jeremiah prophesied that moral decline within the nation of Israel would end with national disintegration and destruction. Ignored, demonized, and persecuted, he was jailed as a traitor for daring to warn against idolatry and child sacrifice, as in Jeremiah 7:30. “For the Children of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight, saith the Lord; they have set their detestable things in the house whereon My name is called, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire which I commanded not, neither came it into my mind.” 

When Jerusalem falls and the Jews exiled to Babylon, Jeremiah encourages them to maintain fidelity to God and Torah, promising redemption for past errors, renewed protection and care from Heaven, and a return to holy worship in Israel.

Jeremiah serves as our example of a Jewish pro-life activist. A minority within a minority, the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation provides much needed Torah based pro-life education, Jewish friendly pregnancy care and adoption referrals, and healing after abortion. Thank you, Jeremiah, for your example which strengthens and inspires us everyday, 

Please share this post on your social media to amplify our message in this troubled world. Thank you.

Cecily Routman 

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

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. She envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.