DVAR TORAH FOR ROSH HASHANAH

Dvar Torah for Rosh Hashanah
Early in September, 1977, a drama began that added much kavod, much dignity, to the wisdom of Torah and to those who spend their lives applying Torah knowledge to the complex problems encountered daily in the modern world. In Lakewood, New Jersey, Siamese twins were born to a prestigious family of Torah educators. The twins were taken by helicopter, on September 15, to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, where Dr. C. Everett Koop, who subsequently became the Surgeon General of the United States, was then the hospital's Chief of Surgery. Immediately after the initial evaluation, it was obvious to all the physicians called in to evaluate the twins that both would die unless they were separated. However, the only way one child would be viable was if the other child was killed during surgery. The question was referred to Rav Moshe Feinstein for his evaluation and decision.

The children, designated Baby A and Baby B, were fused in the ventral area all the way from the shoulder down to the pelvic region. The twins shared one six-chambered heart. The wall separating the essentially normal four chambers from the other two, most likely the stunted heart of Baby A, was too thin to be divided. It was not possible to give the two chambered heart to Baby A, so that she would survive for as long as a two-chambered heart could carry her physiological needs. There was only one solution. The entire six-chambered heart had to be given to Baby B, and the life of Baby A would have to be sacrificed.

It was clear to all concerned that this was a major ethical issue that had ramifications for the abortion debate, and for the ethics of neonate salvage. The Chief Surgeon, a deeply religious man, was fully aware of the ethical import of any decision in this case. Dr. Koop referred the case to the courts so as not to have any accusation of premeditated murder leveled against him. In addition, nurses and doctors at Children's Hospital consulted with their religious guides, and many reported back that they would not be able to participate in the surgery.

I recall how impressed I was with a statement Dr. Koop made, a statement that in my opinion revealed the man's personality and also incurred a special merit. When the team of twenty or so professionals were awaiting Rav Feinstein's decision, and, indeed, were expressing impatience at the lapse of time, which interfered with their private, professional lives significantly, Dr. Koop quieted the group with the following statement:

"The ethics and morals involved in this decision are too complex for me. I believe they are too complex for you as well. Therefore I referred it to an old rabbi on the Lower East Side of New York. He is a great scholar, a saintly individual. He knows how to answer such questions. When he tells me, I too will know."

You would think that someone with such respect from the Jewish community as well as the secular community would have a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability to make such difficult ethical decisions. In fact it was the exact opposite.

In his introduction to his Responsa Rav Moshe asks a simple question: how could he, or anyone for that matter, have the audacity to make a decision in Jewish law? How could anyone claim to possess the divine truth when it comes to deciding a matter of Halacha?

The answer, he says, is that we can't. We can't pretend that we know the truth. And if it wasn't for this week's Parsha, we'd be stuck. But in Parshas Nitzavim it says "Lo Bashamayim Hiy", G-d gave us the Torah and it is our responsibility to apply it, to clarify it, to make halachic decisions. Are we always going to be correct? No. But we try our best, allow the most qualified individuals to make these decisions and pray to G-d that we make the correct decisions. That's all we can do.
The humility it takes for the Gadol Hador (great Torah scholar) to write this is unfathomable, and yet it's at the bedrock of Judaism. We can never be %100 sure that our position is correct, we always have to honest enough to say, "I was incorrect". That humility is such a special Jewish trait, and the lack of it causes the world so much pain.

People love to blame religion for the world's biggest problems, such as Fundamental Islam. And Torah Judaism tends to get lumped together with Fundamental Christians and Fundamental Islam, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

In the September 29, 2005 edition of the NY Times it quotes Rafat Moqadi, a potential suicide bomber who walked into a Tel Aviv restaurant with the intent of blowing it up. However, after seeing 2 little girls in the restaurant he changed his mind: ''Seeing that, I decided not to carry out the operation. I couldn't do it,'' he said.

Why did he want to be a suicide bomber? "Yet, Moqadi said he longed for what he believes awaits a suicide bomber in the hereafter -- God's reward and a special place in heaven for martyrs. ''He has a life in paradise,'' he told The Associated Press on Thursday. ''He doesn't die.''"

It's that attitude, to be so certain that this is what G-d wants, that you're even willing to kill innocent people in order to carry it out. That's the problem. Rav Moshe had trepidation saying that a lulav was kosher, because he might be incorrectly interpreting G-d's will, and suicide bombers are 100% confident that this is what G-d wants? I'm sorry, but I think Rav Moshe had a better sense of what G-d wants from us, I'll take his approach, thank you.

As we approach Rosh Hashanah we have to take Rav Moshe's lesson to heart. We have to be willing to question our assumptions. Our assumptions of who we are, who we should be and who we can be. We have to be willing to admit that we don't know everything, and that new approaches may have more validity than we originally thought.

We must admit that we don't always know exactly what G-d wants, but we'll do our best to figure it out. The Torah is Lo Beshamim hiy, and we must use it to the best of our abilities to guide our lives.

Rabbi Joshua Strulowitz
http://www.blogger.com/adathisraelrabbi@gmail.com