Letter about Rabbi Soloveitchik's Position on Vasectomies in Halacha (1974)

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Dear [redacted],

I tried calling you at the hospital last week and left a message, which probably was not conveyed to you. I also tried to catch your eye at services on Saturday afternoon at The Center, but was unsuccessful.

Please do not think I have neglected the matter you brought to my attention. I have been looking into it, and decided to consult Rabbi Soloveitchik on the question.

His first reaction was, and apparently remains with this, that a vasectomy as a means of curbing fertility is obviously against the spirit and the word of the Torah, and therefore cannot be countenanced. He reserved judgment on the case of vasectomies performed in the process of prostatectomy as a means of reducing infection.

I then asked him to think as well of the problem of reversible vasectomies, keeping in mind the new technique you described to me, as well as a new technique I have read of in a science magazine, which requires nothing but the moving of an artificially implanted valve to restore fertility. He asked me to call him in mid-July about the problem.

If and when I get an answer, I shall of course let you know.

My best wishes for a very happy and pleasant summer to you, your wife, and your family.

Cordially, Rabbi Norman Lamm

Halakhic Issues of Modern Times, Part 3: The Abortion Problem - The Basic Halacha (1974)

I. INTD. Subject too imp’t + maturity too extensive, torom lecture. 1) So…this lect: BASIC HAl. FRAMEWORK. 2) Next week: the moral save (suggestions purely techn. הלכה; Hal’s p it gentiles. AB; + what attitude Jews should be to PUBLIC policy. 2) When all this attention to Ab? Publ controv’n; 〜300,00 intuan Abr/gr 4) Some P’s in Hal: is fiction “mundane?” Is focus a “picion?” If not murder, is Ab permitted on

Talmudic Analysis Practical Halacha Women & Judaism

Halakhic Issues of Modern Times, Part 4: The Abortion Problem - The Moral Issue (1974)

I. Intro 1. Convent: NY leading פסקי הלכות – rather: illust’g How הלכה reacts. Illustrations, not denoirns. 2.Today – will touch even of relps law-morality – a/range an etremely siddre one ten laurders, philosophers, moralized. And from HAL to mor’y, to public pol’y 3. 3 parts: a) בני נח; b) J. view in Ab. legal’n (לפני מר); c) morality

Talmudic Analysis Practical Halacha Women & Judaism

Statement to Jewish Telegraphic Agency About Counting Women in a Minyan (1973)

I am opposed to the ruling on women as members of a minyan on both Halachic and non-Halachic grounds. I see nothing wrong and everything commendable with women accepting on them observances which are Halachically obligatory only upon men. However, such voluntary assumption of responsibilities does not transform the act into one of Halachic obligation. Therefore, a woman who prays with a minyan every day is certainly praiseworthy, but since her act lacks the quality of obligation, she cannot be counted as part of a minyan. To maintain that this in some way bespeaks a patronizing attitude to women is to raise a false issue. Of course there are problems, but this is not one of them, and certainly not the most important one. Insofar as extra-Halachic reasons are concerned, it is for the good of the Jewish community, the Jewish family, and especially Jewish women, that the fundamental patriarchal structure of Jewish society be maintained and continued. This does by no means imply that we are unalterably opposed to an enhanced role for women in general and in the Jewish community in particular, but I am not quite ready to abandon a form of social and familial structure reflected in the Halacha which has stood for 3500 years because of the pressure of cultural fashions.

Practical Halacha Women & Judaism