Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Body

PART II: SYMPOSIUM

P a r t II
SYMPOSIUM Part II: Symposium 29 Modern Jewish Views of the Body “A Body of Laws”: Traditional Texts Speak to Contemporary Problems Abraham J. Twerski EVER SINCE the epochal work of Darwin, there has been an ongoing and often heated debate of creation vs. evolution. The concept of a Creator is not within the scientific realm; hence the question of whence came the primordial energy that resulted in the Big Bang is unanswerable . It might seem that the advocates of each position, for all their zeal, are engaged in an essentially philosophical argument that is of little moment in actual life. The combination of hydrogen and oxygen produces water, which is the basis of life. Whether this combination of elements was designed by an intelligent being or was a chance occurrence seems to have little application in our everyday lives. However, the philosophical issue has major implications in regard to one aspect of human behavior: the rights of a person to one’s own body. The attitude of Torah Judaism is expressed in the following paragraph: In struggling with biomedical ethics, it is important to recognize that man does not have a proprietary interest in either his life or his body. If one looks for a legal category in order to explain man’s rights and obligations with regard to his life and his person, it would be quite accurate to say that human life is a bailment, that man is a bailee, and that the Creator is the bailor. God has created man and entrusted him with this precious treasure called human life. Life has been entrusted to man for guardianship and safekeeping. Man is required to reserve and to prolong that life until such time as God chooses to reclaim it. That does not mean that the charge may not be burdensome. It certainly does not mean that man, left to his own desires, to his own intelligence and his very human emotions might not often wish otherwise. Indeed, in situations that are unfortunately too frequent, it would be only human for a person to wish otherwise.1 1. J. David Bleich, “Care of the Terminally Ill,” in Jewish Values in Health and Medicine , edited by Levi Meier (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991), 146. Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: BODY 30 Absent the concept of Creator, the above is meaningless. Inasmuch as there is no one else who owns one’s body, it would follow that everyone is the proprietor of one’s own body and may do with it whatever one wishes. Should there be societal concerns on this issue, they can be dealt with by the courts and legislatures. Otherwise, the body is no different from any other possession. One may care for it and preserve it, or one may neglect and destroy it. Given the Judaic belief in Creation, and that the Torah is the expression of God’s will, the rights one has to one’s own body are dictated by the Torah and, in Orthodox Judaism, by halakhah, the body of laws developed by Torah scholars throughout Jewish history, including the Talmud, the Shulchan Arukh (codified laws), and responsa. The scriptural source for rules on the care of one’s body is the scriptural verse in Genesis 9:2:“Your blood, which belongs to your souls, I will demand.” Although this appears to prohibit suicide, the Talmud (Bava Kamma 90b) extends this to self-injury, also referring to the verses that consider a Nazirite to be sinful because he has inflicted deprivation (of wine) on himself. Another source is the biblical prohibition of wanton destruction of any object, based on the verse prohibiting destruction of a fruit-bearing tree (Deuteronomy 20:19). The specific prohibition of selfmutilation , “You shall not cut yourselves and you shall not make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person” (Deuteronomy 14:1) refers to the pagan ritual of mourning. That the Torah requires a person to preserve one’s health is further derived from the verse, “But you shall greatly beware for your souls” (Deuteronomy 4:15). Although there are differences of opinion in the Talmud, halakhah states that self-injury is forbidden and that caring for one’s health is obligatory, although this may be of rabbinical rather than scriptural origin. An additional prohibition of self-endangerment may be derived from the commandment requiring a person to make a fence around his roof to prevent someone from falling (Deuteronomy...