CONCLUSION
For us at the end of the twentieth century, personal considerations must give way to the broader theological considerations and needs."Be fruitful and multiply" is necessary for us as in earlier ages as a matter of survival. The threat to us may come from assimilation rather than persecution, disease, or hunger, but it is just as real. We must therefore change our attitude toward birth control and larger families.
Birth control has been widely practiced among us; it has enabled women to achieve the same professional goals as men. It has led at best to a family with two children, the minimum mentioned by the Tradition. We understand that birth control is permissible within the traditional understanding of rabbinic Judaism . We can achieve the individual goals along with a larger number children if the community will play a positive role, and so place the ancient commandment,"be fruitful and multiply", into a different context.
Notes 1. Genesis 1.22; 1.28; 9.1 and 7; 35:11. 2. Genesis 2.24. 3. Isaiah 45.18 and Ecc. 11:6.
4. Maimonides Sefer Hamitzvot(Aseh ) 212; Yad Hil. Ishut 15; Sefer Mitzvot Gadol(Aseh ), 49; Sefer Mitzvot Qatan 284;, Tur, Shulhan Arukh Even Haezer 1, We should note that various other listings of the six-hundred and thirteen commandmanets like those of Moses of Coucy thirteenth century, Sefer Mitzvot Hagadol, as well as the earlier listing of Saadiah Gaon (882-942), organized mitzvot in a somewhat different form, Saadiah according to the Decalogue and Moses of Coucy as well as his son Isaac of Corbey in the sequence of the humash.
5. b. Sanhedrin 63a. 6. b. Avodah Zarah 5 a, Sotah 47a.
7. b. Yevamot 65b, Strack and Billerbeck II p. 373.
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