Cross Purposes

Ah, competing forces at work. On the one hand, we have The Family Research Council announcing a presentation on "The Authentic Pro-life Tradition of Judaism". It purports to chronicle Judaism's pro-life ways, then "unmasks the attack launched against it by Jewish liberals in the latter half of the Twentieth Century." The speaker is one Richard Nadler, whose expertise in this complex area of Talmudic law is well set out in this biography the FRC provides:

Richard Nadler is a free lance journalist and policy analyst. A co-founder of the American Shareholders Association, he authored The Rise of Worker Capitalism (Cato Institute, Nov. 1, 1999), and The Influence of Intensity Factors on the Political Opinions of Investors (Dean Witter Foundation, Jan. 12, 2001). Mr. Nadler co-authored The Kyoto Protocol and U.S. Agriculture (Heartland Institute, Oct. 1, 1998) and Republican Issue Advertising in Black and Hispanic Population Areas: A Meta-Study of the 2002 Mid-Term Elections (Access Communications Group, Feb. 2003). He is the author of political biographies on Sen. Phil Gramm and commentator Pat Buchanan, and a frequent contributor to such publications as National Review, Policy Review, Insight Magazine, Education Reform News, and Human Life Review.

Yep, chock full of theological expertise. By which I mean, none that is apparent aside from writing the book around which his talk is based. In absence of that, I'm going to stick with the article by Rabbi David M. Feldman, "This Matter of Abortion," in Contemporary Jewish Ethics: A Reader (Elliot N. Dorff & Louis E. Newman, eds., New York: Oxford UP 1995): 382-391. Rabbi Feldman is the author of Birth Control in Jewish Law and Health and Medicine in the Jewish Tradition. It's a complex and nuanced argument, but what it comes down to is that abortion is nearly universally not considered to be murder in Jewish tradition, and that a "principle in the Jewish view...is...that her [the mother's] welfare, avoidance of her pain, comes first." Though I hesitate to pass judgment on Mr. Nadler without hearing his argument, I'd be very interested to see how he deals with the significant amount of historical (well before the middle of the 20th century--we're talking Rashi here) support Rabbi Feldman musters for his position.

On the other side of things, the Grey Lady reports that the Conservative Jewish movement (whom I affiliate with) is considering lifting its ban on homosexual marriage and rabbinic ordination (H/T: MoJ). Obviously, I support this move, and the article makes it seem like the proposal is in good shape--because of Judaism's pluralistic tradition, the opinion only needs 6 votes in the 25 member committee to become a valid legal opinion.

Judaism's flexibility and tolerance for a diverse array of perspectives has always been one of its greatest strengths. I hope that my denomination's leaders will make me proud to be a Conservative Jew when this issue comes to a vote.