The Cult of the Rabbinical Expert

At our November Monthly Mishpacha meeting, we showed a short video published by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, in which Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz answered this question: Should Jews be in favor of overturning Roe v Wade? After much waffling, Rabbi Breitowitz answered no. We respectfully beg the rabbi's indulgence as we disagree with him.   Watch the video(2:47) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXbV40C5aN0&t=1s

Rabbi Breitowitz is a Senior Lecturer in Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. While this would assign him unquestionable authority on Jewish legal matters, his bio reveals long term exposure to secular ideologies which clearly influence his tortured attempts to explain why he thinks that murdering innocent people in the womb should be legal. Read his bio here: https://tikvahfund.org/faculty/rabbi-yitzchak-breitowitz/

Regrettably, many faith leaders find excuses that passively condone or actively support the legal murder of innocent people through abortion. Some may not be aware of how serious a problem abortion has become in our society. Others may think that abortion is a civil right and mention it frequently. Some say that vocally opposing abortion will hurt women in the congregation who feel badly after abortion. There are those who fear offending pro-abortion advocates in their midst who will attack them and have them fired. Depending on the political climate, some rabbis boldly use the pulpit to endorse abortion rights while others fear losing a tax-exempt status if they dare champion the right to life on religious and moral grounds. 

These personal and professional concerns lack significance when compared to the reality of abortion as the ultimate form of child abuse. Legal abortion is a clear violation of human rights. Abortion is an extremely dangerous operation and harmful to women both physically and psychologically. Abortion is a national tragedy, and a deliberate offense against our Creator. 

Rabbi Breitowitz opposes legal penalties for killing innocent babies in the womb. His concern is that a medical expert or a state’s attorney may deny an exception to save the mother’s life. This ruling might conflict with a rabbi who advises abortion when he believes the mother’s life is endangered.  

In this age of high tech, life-saving interventions for pregnant women and their unborn children, Rabbi Breitowitz voices particular concern for a pregnant woman's psychiatric condition that may pose a serious threat to her life.  

Let us explore reasons why a Jewish woman might be suicidal during pregnancy. She may be in a conflicted marriage or abusive relationship, or the pregnancy may be the result of rape or incest. Perhaps she is overwhelmed with the care of other children. The baby's father may be pressuring her to terminate the pregnancy. She may fear that her financial or professional standing may be affected. She has been told that the baby shows an abnormal ultrasound or troubling diagnosis for which the doctor recommends killing the baby to cut hospital costs and minimize family trauma.

All of these circumstances can be remedied without killing an innocent child in an inhumane, excruciatingly painful dismemberment or chemical abortion procedure. Why might a rabbi advise abortion rather than encourage adoption, or practical supportive services, or family intervention to address underlying problems? 

We suspect that rabbis have conflicting motives when they counsel for abortion. Perhaps a rabbi is being pressured by a perpetrator who wants the abortion to avoid accountability or criminal liability. The rabbi may anticipate recrimination from peers or censor from colleagues. Possibly, the rabbi holds the belief that abortion is healthcare and a religious right. A rabbi may fear loss of membership dues and donations, or even their pulpit if they speak for the baby's God given right to life no matter the difficulties. 

Perhaps thoughtful consideration of these conflicts will force the rabbi to acknowledge a spiritual weakness - a lack of allegiance to Hashem's holy commandments to respect life, to rescue innocents being led to slaughter, and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

When talking in public or counseling in private, rabbis ought to remember that in Nazi occupied territories no criminal liabilities existed for killing innocent people, most of whom happened to be us. Rabbi Breitowitz misses the correlation between the savage human rights abuses that we endured then, and his opinion that no punishable liabilities for murdering innocent people in the womb should exist now.

Rabbinical opposition to legal limits on abortion incites anti-Semitism by perpetuating the public perception that Judaism is a baby killing cult. It places that proverbial footstool in the way of abortion minded Jews, encouraging them to destroy their children rather than seek alternative solutions and support from Jewish sources. It supports a corrupt abortion industry whose criminal, immoral, and gruesome practices violate all Halacha.

Preserving rabbinical authority in abortion decisions can easily be accomplished within legal limits if rabbis move beyond self-interested, customary opinions. Rather than working against expert medical opinion in what may or may not be life threatening exceptions, rabbis can humbly broaden their knowledge base to learn and advise life-saving remedies for both mother and child. The abundant blessings bestowed upon them by the Giver of Life will more than compensate for a small loss of purposeless autonomy.

Cecily Routman

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