12/11/2018 Understanding Jewish Religious Values & Their Role In Health Care A View From Jewish Tradition Rabbi James A. Gibson, Temple Sinai, Pittsburgh, PA Where Does Jewish Teaching Come From? Torah (5 Books of Moses) Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (compiled from 1850-650 BCE) Seen as source of God’s authority in the world Understood by Jews as God’s will for the Jewish people Contains 613 Commandments knows as mitzvot Judaism, despite its many streams, sees its mission and integrity in interpreting and applying these laws to our lives These laws cover our relationship to God through ritual and every conceivable human interchange, from criminal jurisprudence to labor law, from marriage & divorce to how we treat animals The 3 Parts of our Bible: Torah, Prophets, Writings Total of 39 books: Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy Prophets - Joshua, Judges, I/II Samuel, I/II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi Writings - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I/II Chronicles 1
12/11/2018 The Five Books of the Torah Are More Authoritative than All Other Bible Books Example of Abortion – The Book of Jeremiah Jeremiah 1.5 The word of God came to me: Before I created you in the womb I selected you; Before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations. This verse is regularly used to infer that the Bible recognizes personhood of a fetus before birth Because the statement is from the Bible it is presumed to have the highest spiritual authority BUT… Torah’s View Trumps Jeremiah Example of Abortion - From the Torah Exodus 21.22: When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact from him…but if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life… Torah law says that a fetus is protected with the threat of a monetary fine. A born person is protected with the threat of capital punishment. Therefore, fetal life is not equivalent to born life outside the womb How Can The Rest of the Bible Carry Less Weight? Only Torah is given in its entirety by God to the Jewish people in a mass revelation described in Exodus 19 More than 600,000 individuals at Mt. Sinai were there God wrote the Mitzvot (Commandments) endowing them with ultimate authority and perfection All other revelations of God’s will are to individuals or small groups. Miracles are not revelations 2
12/11/2018 613 Laws of The Torah Fulfilling the Mitzvot correctly is the goal of observant Jews – by doing so they fulfill the will of the Creator of the Universe who gave us Torah as a gift and an obligation There are (acc. to Rabbinic tradition) 613 commandments/mitzvot in the Torah 248 + commandments (bones in body) 365 – commandments (days of year) >300 have been null and void since the destruction of the 2 nd Temple by the Romans in 70 CE Study of Torah and Talmud for their own sake is a primary religious act in Judaism Scholars take up the challenge of applying the laws to everyday modern life Torah’s laws are considered more authoritative for Jews than any other book or section of the Hebrew Bible – nothing trumps Torah! Later Rabbis Interpret & Apply the Commandments Core Rabbinic literature was composed between 200 BCE-550 CE It is composed of two main works/disciplines: Midrash – Interpretation of all Torah verses and the laws contained within Mishnah – Application of Torah laws through reasoning and experience Talmud – Composed of of Mishnah (200 BCE-200 CE) and the Gemara (200-550CE) There are two Talmuds, one composed in Babylon (Iraq) the other in the land of Israel (known as the Jerusalem Talmud) The Babylonian Talmud is considered the more authoritative of the two Talmud Discussions Redacted Into Codes Core Legal Codes in Judaism Mishneh Torah by Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) Shulchan Aruch by Yosef Karo (1488-1575) Karo’s code refined because of differences between Jewish practice in Mediterranean countries (Sephardic) and German/Eastern European countries (Ashkenazic) Moses Isserles (1522-1572) wrote interlinear notes to show how Ashkenazi Jews were to follow the laws set out in the Shulchan Aruch 3
12/11/2018 When The Law Isn’t Clear, Ask! Rabbis have served as judges on Jewish legal matters for more than 2,000 years Individual rabbinic decisions are known as responsa (sing. responsum) If a traditional Jew is not certain whether an act is permitted or prohibited or is not sure what course of action accords with the Torah, s/he asks a rabbi who either consults other rabbis or issues his own legal ruling Who Owns You? Clear in Jewish sources from the Torah through the Talmud that God owns us Only God has the authority to gives & take life Human decisions to end life are illegitimate: Murder Suicide (exceptions?) Abortion – a very complicated matter! (not for today) God Creates Humanity By Infusing Breath Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2.6) Breathing is a condition of life The very word for soul in Hebrew is based on the verb “to breathe” Question: Does breath have to be initiated by the individual or can it be prompted by machine and still be called human life? 4
12/11/2018 God Ends Moses’ Life By Drawing Out His Breath So Moses the servant of the God died there in the land of Moab, by God’s word (literally: mouth). And he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth- Peor; and no man knows of his burial place unto this day. And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. (Deuteronomy 34.1-7) V’chai Bahem – You Shall LIVE by Them (mitzvot) Leviticus 18.5 implies that we should follow the commandments in order to “live by them” This is taken to mean that living is itself a commandment and we are to use the means of science, medicine and faith to heal and further life For example – Normative Orthodox law now prohibits smoking as it causes premature death. Similarly it would ban illegal drug use or other human habits that might shorten life Why? Again, life is from God! End Of Life T’reifa – A person “…known for certain that he had a fatal organic disease and physicians say that his disease is incurable by human agency and that he would have died of it even if he had not been killed in another way.” Goses/Goseset – One who is dying, usually within 3 days of death Physician determines status of patient Rabbi yields to physician on the physical condition of the patient Niftar/Nif-t’ra – One who has died (literally, departed) 5
12/11/2018 Are We Allowed To Hasten Death? And so it is forbidden to cause the dead person to die quickly. Such as one who was dying for a long time and he could not separate, it is forbidden to remove the pillow or the mattress from underneath hum, because they say that there are feathers of some birds that cause this, and similarly they should not move him from his place. And similarly it is forbidden to place the keys of the synagogue under his head, in order that he take leave. But if there is something there that is causing delay in the departure of the soul, such as if there is a banging noise next to that house, such as a wood chopper, or there is salt on his tongue, and these are preventing the departure of the soul, it is permitted to remove it from there, that in this there is no activity at all, rather he removes the barrier. (Shulchan Aruch/Yoreh Deah 339.1) Responses Of Different Streams: Orthodox Orthodox Judaism teaches: “Any positive act designed to hasten the death of the patient is equated with murder in Jewish law , even if death is hastened by only a matter of minutes. ” Rabbi J. David Bleich, quoted by Fred Rosner in Modern Medicine and Jewish Ethics, Ktav Publishing, NYC, 1991 YET… “However, he is not obligated to employ procedures which are themselves hazardous in nature and may potentially foreshorten the life of the patient. Nor is either the physician obligated to employ a therapy which is experimental in nature.” (ibid.) Reponses Of Different Streams: Conservative “ [ An act taken] with proper precautions to insure that such decisions are taken seriously...a decision to remove modes of medical intervention from such people in given cases may be taken in good conscience and in consonance with Jewish law, even though such action will lead to their deaths .” (from “A Jewish Approach to End- Stage Medical Care,” Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Rabbis’ Association, 1991) “If the goses category is to be used to regulate care of the terminally ill, this policy permitting the withdrawal and withholding of aggressive treatments from such patients invokes the Jewish tradition's distinction between sustaining the life and prolonging the death of the moribund. The definition of the person to whom it applies (the goses), however, is broader than most Orthodox rabbis make it- but.. more in keeping with the intent of the tradition.” (ibid.) 6
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