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Pro-Life Torah Bamidbar
This text should not be used as a Torah based argument for killing unborn children or killing children under one month of age, just as it cannot be used as justification for killing females at any age!
The Torah reading this week, Bamidbar: Numbers 1:1-4:20, opens in the midst of the desert, where Moses is instructed by the Almighty to conduct a census according to well defined guidelines. These instructions are complicated, and specific to the customs of the day. They establish the Nation of Israel's first army, a security perimeter around the Tabernacle. and a cadre of priests to perform sacred duties in the Sanctuary.
The census in Bamidbar counts only males from the age of one month, or from age twenty or thirty; however, families are mentioned, too, as a way of including women and children. The census methodology counted only male babies one month of age and older because that milestone was considered the age of viability at that time. It is not a statement of non-personhood for unborn children, children under the age of one month, or for females; it is merely a pragmatic method of counting.
This text should not be used as a Torah based argument for killing unborn children or killing children under one month of age, just as it cannot be used as justification for killing females at any age! Viability is now an astonishing 22 weeks gestation. With neonatal care, these babies live outside the womb. Many thrive and go on to live normal healthy lives.
The census is important because it recognizes each individual member of each individual tribe as a unique human being with value, dignity, and worth. HaShem loves each one of us, and creates each one of us to fulfill a specific mission on Earth. We know that each person is unique from day one of conception, and our psalms inform us that HaShem knows the destiny of each of us from the moment He bestows the gift of life at conception. This is one reason we define each unborn child as an entity much beloved by God. The other reason is that life and death are up to Him alone. Our task is to protect and support life at every stage of development rather than attack and destroy it.
While we are looking at numbers, let's take a look at abortion numbers within the Jewish community and beyond. The Numbers, Astonishing. The Loss Of Life, Tragic. The Reality, Frightening. The Heartache, Inconsolable.
576 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Week in Israel*. 30,000Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Year in Israel. 2 MillionJewish Children In Israel Have Died From Abortion Since 1948**
338 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Week in the US. 17,622Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Year in the US. 793,000Jewish Children in the US Have Died From Abortion Since 1973***(1.3% of 61 million)
61,967,191 children from all backgrounds have died from abortion In the United States since 1973.****
1,575,705,603 unborn children worldwide have died by deliberate poisoning, dismemberment, and late term infanticide since 1980.****
The Haftorah for Bamidbar refers us to Samuel, a miracle baby born of a barren woman who prays for a child. She conceives after promising that she will dedicate her son's life to serve HaShem. Samuel becomes an exceptionally influential leader in his time - a prophet, priest, teacher, judge, and appointer of Israel's' first two kings. Consider the disastrous effect on the Jewish people and upon history had he never been born. Consider the devastating repercussions upon the world from all the precious unborn children who were never born because someone decided through willfulness, ignorance, manipulation, coercion, or force that they didn't have the right to be here. Think of all the unfulfilled destiny, the wounded mothers, the sorrowful fathers, the loss of leadership, scholarship, and righteous example.
The numbers don't lie. It's important that we recognize each human life, wherever they live and however they die. You can bet HaShem does.
Cecily Routman
May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.
*https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/legal-terms-of-abortion-in-israel