At the core of Judaism is the legal system known as halakhah, from the Hebrew meaning “to go” or “to walk.” Originating at Sinai, halakhah shapes Jewish life and, ideally, directs Jews towards righteous and exalted conduct. Yet even this legal system, seen to be based in divine revelation, is not exempt from its share of complex questions, uncertainties, and disagreements about the appropriate path to follow. In those occasional circumstances when the correct legal ruling is unclear, halakhic authorities formulate responses through the application of precedents and principles to the situation under consideration. This task, accomplished as it is by gifted but fallible human beings, at times produces differing interpretations and rulings such that the law generates various solutions that cannot be neatly reconciled. While, in time, the halakhah usually converges on a path that comes to be regarded as normative, this “right way” is rarely so obvious that it can be determined with ease, nor can alternative potential legal options be dismissed without reservation.

The issue of abortion presents the halakhah with exactly this type of challenge. While there is fundamental agreement on the broad parameters of the distinctive Jewish attitude to abortion, legal clarity on critical particulars – a low priority for many centuries – has proven to be a difficult goal to attain. This reality makes the thought of the rabbis – as they grapple with a delineated textual tradition, wrenching actual moral dilemmas, and a diversity of developing responses – particularly intriguing.