MARK WASHOFSKY
draws conceptual distinctions which, if intellectually stimulating, have the most tenuous roots in legal reality. In our case, for example, he quite literally invents two halakhic institutions: the"semi-rodef" and the"semi-nefesh." These are unprecedented concepts of Jewish law, for while the Talmud and the posqim speak at length of the"pursuer" and the"person," never before has it been suggested that one can be"a pursuer who is not a full pursuer” or"a person who is not a full person." Soloveitchik 's hiddush may resolve this particular ruling of Rambam , but it is patently artificial, forcing the Talmudic texts into interpretations that do not correspond to their plain or obvious meaning. It is a weak reed upon which to support an halakhic decision of the gravest import.
Nonetheless, R. Haim's analysis figures significantly in the argumentation of those restrictive rulings which form the present halakhic consensus on abortion.*® This may be the case because, while there are lessfanciful ways to explain Rambam 's difficult ruling,* this one best supports the conclusion that abortion is permissible only in order to save the life of the mother. To follow this explanation is to refute the very possibility of halakhic alternatives, the idea that abortion might be warranted even when the mother's life is not at stake. It may be artificial, in other words, but it works: it creates halakhic certainty out of what is otherwise a plurality of plausible approaches. R. Haim's analysis is, at bottom, a most powerful means of deriving the one, "correct" answer to this legal question.
Prior to his death in 1986, R. Moshe Feinstein , head of Yeshivath Tifereth Jerusalem in New York , was universally acclaimed as the preeminent Orthodox halakhic authority in North America . Since so many observant Jews regard his pronouncements as"the" halakhah on a given issue, his severely restrictive responsum on abortion’ is an important element in the creation of the halakhic consensus. And an examination of that decision reveals some interesting details.
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