[net.religion.jewish] Frank Silbermann's endorsement of Ken Arndt

hfavr@mtuxo.UUCP (a.reed) (02/17/86)

In <995@unc.unc.UUCP>, Frank Silbermann endorses Ken Arndts
article <958@decwrl.DEC.COM> as follws:

> But what is the orthodox JEWISH opinion about the "personhood" of a fetus?
> What is the traditional rabbinical stand on abortion?  Though individual
> Jews may disagree on what secular laws are best, can there be any _official_
> Jewish attitude, other than the Halachic writings?
> For reasons I won't state here, I believe the analogy between the holocaust
> and abortion is weak.  Nevertheless, I suspect that Ken's "close-minded
> dogma" is much closer to classic rabbinical thinking than your own "modernism."
> 	Frank Silbermann

I have done my best to avoid "my own modernism" on this topic. My
reference for the views Arndt was attacking is Menachem Elon's article
on ABORTION in the Encyclopedia Judaica. Menachem Elon is an Orthodox
Rabbi, Professor of Jewish Law and Director of the Institute for
Research in Jewish Law, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I have used
only those opinions for which Elon cites specific Talmudic authority.
Thus: "Abortion, although prohibited, does not constitute murder (Tos.,
Sanh. 59a; Hul. 33a). The scholars deduced the prohibition against
abortion by an a fortiori argument from the laws concerning abstention
from procreation..." etc.

I would suggest the Silbermann read Elon's article and the sources cited
in that article, if only to appreciate the (in my view) irreconcilable
differences between the Christian Fundamentalist views on abortion, as
expounded by Ken Arndt, and Jewish views on the subject. I did not reply
directly to Arndt's article, because I experienced that article as a
classic exercise in Jew-baiting. But, as a proud Jew, I am bothered by a
fellow Jew's endorsement of this kind of hazirei. After you read the
sources, Frank, please examine your conscience and decide whether or not
an apology is in order.

					Adam Reed (ihnp4!npois!adam)