And now a word from the rosh yeshiva of Hebrew Union College, David Ellenson: From The Forward

NOVEMBER 21, 2003

Abortion Ban Degrades and Devalues Women
By DAVID ELLENSON

President Bush recently signed a ban on so-called "partial birth abortions" into law. Enactment of this legislation marks a great victory for the religious right, and such passage surely reflects — as many commentators have pointed out — how successful the proponents of the ban have been in their campaign to restrict the scope of Roe v. Wade.


While the constitutionality of this legislation is immediately and rightfully being challenged in several jurisdictions, the very name assigned to this law indicates that religious fundamentalists have succeeded — for the time being — in defining the religious-moral framework within which the argument over reproductive rights for women in this country will take place.


I am sorry about this, and feel compelled to raise my voice — I refuse to cede the religious-moral high ground on this matter to the religious right. As a rabbi, I would point out that another religious approach to this issue is possible, and I believe this approach should be aired in the public square so that the religious-ethical framework within which this debate is carried on might be reset. After all, Judaism possesses religious-moral teachings that can be used to frame a different ethical assessment of this law.


To be sure, Jewish religious tradition surely accords the fetus status as potential life. However, Judaism does not regard the status attached to the fetus as potential life as morally equivalent to the condition enjoyed by the mother as actual life. To accord the fetus equal moral valence with that of the mother is from a Jewish standpoint a religious-moral error. Judaism countenances therapeutic abortion and the Mishnah — the most venerable code of Jewish law compiled in the first two centuries of the Common Era — states explicitly that "the life of the mother takes precedence over the life of the fetus." As a result, rabbis throughout history have viewed abortion as morally required in instances where the health of the mother is in jeopardy.


The persons who fashioned the current law fail to affirm this position, and I fail to see why they should enjoy a moral monopoly on this issue. Indeed, their refusal to attach any provision that would grant priority to the life of the mother over the being of the fetus even in instances where the life and health of the mother is at risk causes me as a person of faith to condemn the law as wrong from a moral as well as legal perspective. This failure to allow for exceptions even in cases where the life of the woman is endangered represents an unconscionable attack upon women and reveals the true intentions the framers of this law possess concerning women and reproductive rights in this country.


This law as it has been enacted unquestionably diminishes the inviolable status and worth that ought to be granted women as moral agents created in the image of God. Regardless of the outcomes of the challenges to this law in the courts, the parameters of our public debate regarding abortion ought to be reestablished.


Our evaluation of the current law ought to be informed by religious teachings affirming the full personhood of women. Only then can the degradation threatening the sanctity of life be avoided.




David Ellenson is president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Yom Shilishi, 10 pm in LA, Tuesday night

I just wrote a few paragraphs in Hebrew, using words that I've been learning in my Hebrew poetry class. It felt good to get out the Alkali Dictionary (all five volumes) and flex my Hebrew again. I really miss the daily Hebrew lessons in Israel, the chance to write, speak, read, practice, live in Hebrew. Here my Hebrew is mostly in the aforementioned poetry class, as well as translating passages from the Mishna from Hebrew to English. Of course, I speak plenty of Hebrew at home and listen to radio from Israel over the computer.

Today at school I copied the cover of Shaar Ha Matheel, the easy Hebrew newspaper. I need to do that more often, and just read it. Even if I don't get all of it, it's good to do.

One of the problems with the program is that there is no ongoing Hebrew language instruction. It was "get it while you can" in Israel; so it's going to be up to me to continue to advance. There *are* Hebrew classes at HUC, but they conflict with other required classes of mine. Frustrating. It is an amazing language.

Yom Shilishi, Tuesday evening in Los Angeles

I just returned from a shiva minyan for a man in his early 50s who died of Cancer brought on by Crohn's Disease. Last week, I went to a shiva for a woman who died in her late 80s after suffering with a degenerative disease that made her unrecognizable to all around her. In between, I was in Bremerton where I officiated at my first bar mitzvah.

I'm beginning to get a sense of the roller coaster ride of life that is the rabbi. The highs of the bar mitzvah, the sadness of shiva. If you're a feeling person, and I am, you have to decide how much feeling to let in...how much of the high, how much of the low...and how much you just have to keep at arm's length so that you're not constantly yo-yoing from one extreme to another.

Interesting how all of this works.

November 7, 2003, Yom Shishi, Morning at LAX

Shalom l'kulum, and my apology for not writing sooner. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm busy. Really busy. Really, really really busy. Between school, work, life, the occasional trip to the gym (too occasional), traveling to Bremerton (I'm at LAX for my fifth trip since the beginning of September)...life has been nothing if not busy.

So I paid the $3 to use the Internet here at the airport and for my remaining six minutes I'll try to catch up here. First of all, the process of becoming a rabbi remains exhilarting if tiring. The school work, for the most part, I find stimulating. I get along with most of my classmates; there may be one or two that can rub the wrong way, but that's life. I am especially pleased with the way I am integrating what I'm learning in the classroom right into my life, both in Bremerton, but also in my davening andin how I see the world. The more questions, the more answers. The more answers, the more questions. Exactly the way to develop the religious intellect and soul, I think.

Of course I still miss Israel, especially on Friday night when Shabbat begins. There's not a day that goes by when I don't think about a place, a person, a moment in Israel. I hope to visit there soon.

I''m off to Bremerton in a hour for my first ever bar mitzvah, Joey Pearlman. It should be interesting! I get home on Sunday night and then school cranks up again on Monday so I've got a FULL weekend.

Time's running down on the clock...sorry this isn't more profound...perhaps I should put a sign up like Gone Fishin' or "Mind and Soul Under Development: Please hold."

Shabbat Shalom!