Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The conundrum takes shape: foundational verses
- 2 Evaluating life: rabbinic perspectives on fetal standing
- 3 Divining a prohibition: the positions of the Rishonim and Acharonim
- 4 No clear consensus: the sages of a rising modernity
- 5 The struggle returns: Jewish views begin to take form
- 6 Confronting a new reality: legislation for a Jewish state
- 7 A halakhic challenge: discerning Jewish abortion principles
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The conundrum takes shape: foundational verses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The conundrum takes shape: foundational verses
- 2 Evaluating life: rabbinic perspectives on fetal standing
- 3 Divining a prohibition: the positions of the Rishonim and Acharonim
- 4 No clear consensus: the sages of a rising modernity
- 5 The struggle returns: Jewish views begin to take form
- 6 Confronting a new reality: legislation for a Jewish state
- 7 A halakhic challenge: discerning Jewish abortion principles
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It all began with a struggle. We will never discover what it was that caused the fight or precisely when it took place. Nor will we ever find out the circumstances under which two men happened to clash in the immediate vicinity of a pregnant woman. All we know is that the tussle ended in disaster. There came a point when the men, engrossed in combat and oblivious to bystanders, collided with the pregnant woman, and loss of life resulted. The Torah, at Exodus 21:22–25, provides two alternative conclusions to the incident:
If men fight, and they push a pregnant woman and she miscarries, but no other injury (ason) occurs, the one responsible shall surely be fined, when the husband of the woman shall assess, and he shall pay as the judges shall determine. But if an injury (ason) does occur, then you shall award a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.
In relation to either outcome, the aggressor was to be judged on the basis of regulations that appear to be fairly unremarkable. In practice, such cases would have been handled with customary dispatch, and their role in the history of halakhah should have been regarded as minor.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Abortion in Judaism , pp. 1 - 26Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002