A comprehensive comparative study of Jewish law on contemporary reproductive issues from a gender perspective

A sensitive exploration of the development of pivotal life cycle rituals as they touch Jewish women's lives.

"As I write this introduction, the third season of the Israeli series, Schtisel, has arrived on Netflix, eagerly awaited by viewers around the world who would never have imagined how caught up they would get by this family drama of four generations of ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Jerusalem. One episode focuses on Ruchami and Hanina, a young couple who have been married for five years, but without children. It turns out that pregnancy and childbirth would threaten Ruchami's life. She is using an IUD, but she keeps threatening to have it removed, risking her life to become a mother. Finally, with great reluctance, Hanina visits the rebbe, the spiritual authority in their community, to discuss the possibility of using a surrogate. They are, says the rebbe, caught between two "non-ideal" situations: surrogacy, normally forbidden, is non-ideal, but so is Ruchami's unhappiness and the possibility that she might go ahead and take the risk, which is also forbidden"--

All this presents challenges on religious as well as practical levels. Halakha - Jewish Law and Ethics - has much to say about this. For the past quarter century, discussions on the topic have appeared in Tradition, the Journal of Jewish Thought published by the Rabbinical Council of America. Collected here, they offer the general reader an insight into how classic Jewish Law continues to offer insights into the most contemporary of problems.

Most bioethicists concern themselves with common law when considering the mores that inform practitioners operating in the framework of medical institutions. These questions are generally addressed from the perspective of secular ethics. Many Jewish physicians, however Contributors to this volume address medical issues such as organ transplantation, physician's fees, new reproductive technologies, informed consent, and medical confidentiality in the context of Jewish law. Jewish thought is presented as of great relevance to both the history of medical ethics and contemporary medico-legal issues. The volume concludes with a chronicle of Jewish Law in the State of Israel and a survey of recent literature.

Judaism offers us unique—and often divergent—insights into contemporary moral quandaries. How can we use social media without hurting others? Should people become parents through cloning? Should doctors help us die? The first ethics book to address social media and technology ethics through a Jewish lens, along with teaching the additional skills of analyzing classical Jewish texts, The Jewish Family Ethics Textbook guides teachers and students of all ages in mining classical and modern Jewish texts to inform ethical decision-making. Both sophisticated and accessible, the book tackles challenges in parent-child relationships, personal and academic integrity, social media, sexual intimacy, conception, abortion, and end of life. Case studies, largely drawn from real life, concretize the dilemmas. Multifaceted texts from tradition (translated from Hebrew and Aramaic) to modernity build on one another to shed light on the deliberations. Questions for inquiry, commentary, and a summation of the texts’ implications for the case studies deepen and open up the dialogue. In keeping with the tradition of maḥloket, preserving multiple points of view, “We need not accept any of our forebears’ ideas uncritically,” Rabbi Neal Scheindlin explains. “The texts provide opportunities to discover ideas that help us think through ethical dilemmas, while leaving room for us to discuss and draw our own conclusions.”

In civilian and military Jewish communities, together with recent voyages on the high seas, I had the privilege of preparing, writing, and presenting topics of relevance to Jewish persons. These opportunities were a special privilege and I took extra care when I put ideas to paper. It was also a thrill to present these topics to the very different communities I was privileged to lead and for them to benefit from this material. This book begins with an outline, of Jewish symbolism and faith, followed by how our perceptions have changed over time, as practiced by the Jewish community. The main section is on the topic of the Jewish Life Cycle, reviewing how life milestones are celebrated in the Jewish community, from birth through death. These traditions and practices are presented from the Ashkenazic tradition, rather than from the Sephardic one. The majority of Jews in the United States derive from and practice the Ashkenazic rite, though Sephardic traditions are present as well. I have roots in the Sephardic heritage but since the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, those traditions were gradually lost and melded into the Ashkenazic communities and practices. I am therefore, more aware of Ashkenazic traditions and focus on this rite exclusively. I also include a reflection on the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, how the younger generation assumes responsibility by becoming full members of the Jewish community. The Study of Vexillology, on flags, is a brief review how flags were used in the ancient and modern Jewish communities together with their descriptions. The last two sections are scholarly expositions. The first is on the Mystic View of God and how Jewish mysticism imbues meaning into spirituality, with the awareness of mystic ideas in Jewish belief. The second topic reflects on the idea of God's five 'purchases', each of which provides insight into Jewish belief into how we relate to Deity. I conclude with a tribute to Robert Certain, a man I knew at the United States Air Force Academy. He was a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton, and offers a perspective of the World as it Really Is versus the World as it Should Be. These poignant words reflect our place in the universe and how we go about daily life.

Explores the debates about new reproductive technologies in Israel and how they fit with Orthodox Jewish laws concerning parentage and Jewish identity.

The volume contains ten articles, including a penetrating analysis of the application of Jewish price fraud law to the workings of the present-day marketplace. Diverse in their scope and focus, the articles address legal, historical, textual, comparative and conceptual questions. The volume concludes with a survey of recent literature on biblical and Jewish law, and a chronicle section, which discusses recent Israeli and American court cases involving issues where Jewish law is of particular relevance, thereby making the Annual a journal of record.

Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women explores the ways Haredi Jewish women make decisions about their reproductive lives. Although they must contend with interference from doctors, rabbis, and the Israeli government, Haredi women find space for—and insist on—autonomy from them when they make decisions regarding the use of contraceptives, prenatal testing, fetal ultrasounds, and other reproductive practices. Drawing on their experiences of pregnancy, knowledge of cultural norms of reproduction, and theological beliefs, Raucher shows that Haredi women assert that they are in the best position to make decisions about reproduction. Conceiving Agency puts forward a new view of Haredi women acting in ways that challenge male authority and the structural hierarchies of their conservative religious tradition. Raucher asserts that Haredi women's reproductive agency is a demonstration of women's commitment to Haredi life and culture as well as an indication of how they define religious ethics.