Dear JCOGS family,
Pre-pandemic, a few of us began arriving at the Green Mountain Inn’s The Whip restaurant for another edition of JCOGS’s Torah on Tap: Hot Topics. That month’s topic: the Jewish view of abortion. Then more people started arriving, then others, trickling in, until at last we were the largest table at the restaurant (I think the largest table I’ve ever sat at), pulling chairs in to make room for more. It became the most well attended Torah on Tap of the series, a sign that the topic brings with it a fraught, but eager desire to learn and discuss.
This week, a leaked document from the U.S. Supreme Court showed that the current majority of justices are likely to soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
Judaism’s view of abortion is more nuanced than some other religions. For thousands of years, abortion has always been legal in Judaism in certain circumstances, particularly if the woman’s life is in danger. But not in all cases, traditionally. At that Torah on Tap, we discussed some of those traditional nuances. Yet, sociologically and around that large table that day, it became clear of the consensus, which is captured in a 2015 Pew Research Forum survey, where the vast majority (83%) of American Jews support a woman’s legal right to choose to abort “in all/most cases”—that’s more than any other religious group. If you want a basic, but substantive nuanced primer on the Jewish response to abortion, click
here.
In Judaism, the body is considered a sacred gift from G-d. Abortion should never be taken lightly, but the truth is that it rarely, if ever, is taken lightly. It is my personal religious and moral belief that a woman has a sacred right to make that final decision. Not the government. G-d willing, she gets to make that decision with support from medical professionals, from counselors, from her clergy, from family members, and ultimately, from her Jewish and wider society.
In the words of Rabbi Jan Salzman: “The Jewish tradition allows for abortion, primarily because it values the person who is already alive and because of the reasoning that life doesn't begin until a child can exist outside of its mother's body. Each of us is a face of G-d and our tradition demands that we treat each other that way.”
To the women and non-binary folks who are directly impacted by this decision to legislate your bodies, you have my support and love.
Tihiyu bri’im, be well. Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David
P.S. Please join us
tonight at 6pm and
tomorrow at 10am for some very special Shabbat services.
