Healing Well of Miriam

25 Tammuz 5779 / July 28, 2019  ~~ Parshat Matot – Masei

One of the basic Noahide Laws is against murder. The Torah does make a difference, with completely different Hebrew words, between killing in self-defense, accidental killing, and murder—intentional, premeditated murder.   The latter is a capital crime; and its prohibition is a law that applies to all people of all nations. 

When Donald Trump became the president of the United States and then nominated a conservative judge for the Supreme Court, the left wrung their collective hands over the possibility that Roe v Wade could be overturned.  Women took to the streets to shrilly scream for their right to determine anything to do with their own bodies (at the expense of the life of the unfortunate one who had chosen to be born to them).  There has been discussion back and forth about when life actually begins—with a heartbeat, when the fetus may be viable outside the womb, at the first breath…?  Even while early term abortion was accepted by many, for others, that was still not enough.  For them, a woman should have the right to abort even up to the due date.  Some places decided that even after the first breath and cry, a mother should be able to decide the fate of the unwanted (no longer a fetus, so what do we now call this being?) 

Preservation of animals on the protected species list, such as sea turtles or protected birds, include their eggs.  Destroying these eggs is treated as a crime, whose penalty is a financial fine and imprisonment.  Each successive offense carries a stiffer sentence than the last.  It is clear under the Endangered Species Act that these eggs are the babies of their parents—turtle eggs are baby turtles.  Yet some people question whether a human fetus is a baby human.  The ESA was passed to protect these endangered animals.  However, not only is there resistance to protecting human babies—at whatever stage of development—there is an outcry in the world for the “right” of the mother to rid herself of “it.” 

So, when does life begin?  When God created the animals, they came forth alive from the seas on the fifth day and then from the earth on the sixth day.  Adam came to life when God breathed into him.  Now please do not misunderstand this, as some abortionists have.  This breath of God was not simply animating the physical body, similar to the manner in which the animals had experienced the infusion of the nefesh (animal soul).   This breath of God was the transference of the Adamic soul that made him a creature unlike any of the others, for he was created in the “image and likeness” of the Creator Himself.  So, the question is not about when there is “life,” but when the body of the fetus receives the soul.  At that point, the baby is truly human.

We do not really know exactly when this happens.  It could be at conception or at some other point of development. It could even be individual for each soul.  I learned from doctor I know that the embryonic pineal gland stands on day forty.  The pineal gland is considered the center of spiritual connection in the body.  My opinion is that the soul enters the body at some point during the first forty days after conception.  The Midrash says the time in the womb is one of instruction by an angel concerning the Torah and the soul’s purpose in the world.  This Midrash says the soul stood before the Throne of God, even before this incarnation in the watery world of the womb and agreed to all the conditions that would be his life. In the womb, the angel may simply be reminding him.  Then right before birth, the angel strikes his upper lip to shush him, and he forgets.  During his lifetime in this world, as he learns, what he may really be doing is remembering.   

So, the question remains: is the embryo just a mass of cells that can be as easily discarded as an unwanted mole?  Is a fetus less human than a sea turtle egg is a sea turtle?  If this fetus is human, at which stage is intentional, premeditated termination of his life not murder?