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It may be a truism that no person has ever declared on their deathbed, "I
wish I'd spent more time at the office," but I guarantee neither has anyone ever
said, "I wish I'd had fewer children."
In the late sixties and early seventies, a cabal of quasi-scientists spouting pessimistic forecasts of approaching doom managed to sow mindless panic with their scare-tactics about population explosion and mass starvation. The theory then went something along the lines of: Mass-overpopulation is impending, whereupon the ability of the planet to sustain us all will become overstretched and if we are lucky we'll all perish and if not we'll really suffer and until then can you just stop having kids and send lots of grant money to my research foundation so I can live in luxury while researching this imminent disaster while appearing regularly on all the best talk shows to promote my latest book about the problem...
No person has ever declared on his or her deathbed, "I wish I'd had fewer children."
They sucked us in. Empirically, every honest study shows that, year-by-year,
food is becoming more available, healthier and cheaper to produce. Poverty is
being alleviated, with standards of living zooming up worldwide. If anything,
the single biggest problem looming on the economic horizon in the West is our
graying population, with not enough young people coming on line to replace the
baby boomer generation who believed all that pseudo-babble about population
bombs and didn't have enough children to guarantee their retirement pensions.
I can see you shaking your heads and arguing that the reason the environment is improving and resources have increased is because we heeded those clarion calls in time. Reminds me of the guy walking down the street holding the huge magnet to scare away the pink elephants. When informed that there are no pink elephants he smugly observes, "See, works, doesn't it?"
The reason it works is because that's how G-d wanted it. Last week we read how the first commandment given to (the then childless) Adam was, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the world and take control of it" (Genesis
1:28). In this week's Torah reading, Noah, after having survived the flood and
already the proud father of three grown sons, is given the same instructions.
Commentators on the Bible understand from the above that even one blessed with children in one's youth should continue to procreate. Large families are the
greatest of blessings, with each additional child bringing his or her individual blessings to the family.
Each additional child bringing his or her individual blessings to the family
Nature and the environment were created to serve humankind, not the reverse. G-d forbid to gratuitously cause harm to our ecosystem, and truly we bear responsibility to protect this world for future generations, but our first responsibility is to humankind.
It is time to reject the insidious perversions of contemporary culture, to proudly acknowledge our intention to have as large a family as we can. We are positive that G-d, the creator of all, can provide for and sustain all His
creations. The blessings and pleasure that each child brings far outweigh any economic apprehensions. Every extra spark of humanity bought to this world, every additional soul enhancing the Jewish nation, brings the world one step closer to its ultimate perfection and justifies G-d's plan for His universe.
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Latest Comments:
The author said, "I guarantee neither has anyone ever said, "I wish I'd had fewer children." MY OWN MOTHER said she wished she had never had kids and she'd have been better off if we were dead. So, please DO NOT generalize that all parents love their children. BAD, BAD generalization and VERY untrue. How many mothers KILL their children? By putting your head in the sand and refusing to see reality, you are coming to very wrong conclusions.
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My mom said often she wished she had no children because we were the source of all her troubles. In fact, she wished I were dead. So, you can't go around saying no one says this. You don't know that, so to make a generality like that is a lie. Sorry.
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Why should others live and endanger the safety of the Jewish nation on this planet?
Yet, who is man to eradicate non-Jewish presence on this beautiful planet?
Should we all wait for the Hand of the G-d to smite the enemies of Israel?
Or should we all pretend that we are not part of the secret genocide done unto non-Jews for the sake of the Jewish survival?
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Look at the total Jewish population of the world in 1939 and in 2009, seventy years later. Where are the Jews of Warsaw? The Jews of Vilna? The Jews of Amsterdam? The Jews of Salonika? Sorry, but we Jews have already contributed too much to Zero Population Growth (the Nazis took care of that). What about all of those "used to be Jewish" areas in the United States, and Arab countries such as Syria, Iran, Morocco and Egypt that expelled their Jews? Without a few generations of Jewishly involved large families, we Jews are in grave danger of disappearing. Maybe China is hoping to reduce its total population by 2100 from 1.3 billion to 1.0 billion, but we Jews can't even get back to our 1939 worldwide levels. That's utterly tragic.
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Since the writer who claimed that we must ration our birthing of Children among other things, signed off as "Anonymous", I was directing my comments in answer to his or her comments, If He or She had signed a name; I would have used his or her name. And I reiterate, that his or her comments are concurring with the abortionist sentiments, because that is what they say.. I Strongly Disagree that the world is over Populated, I have Travel All over central and South America where there are acres and acres of fruitful land where a family of thousands could live with room to spare. The Problem is people desiring to bunch up in metropolitan cities. To say What G-D Intended is to have HIS mind and HE have Already Clearly Informed us "For My Thoughts are not your thoughts, neither My ways your ways..... I might add People are also Dying by the Millions in Wars, and With Divers kinds of Illness everyday!!! I say Populate!!!
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The sentiments expressed by some of the comments are way too mean spirited. The rabbi writes as he understands the world today in light of our religious beliefs. This said, overpopulation is a real problem. Period. However, I do not think that the biblical command to be fruitful and multiply meant that G-d wanted families so large that the families became dysfunctional due to myriad causes. If parents can support x numbers of children, than this is probably in line with the bibilical command. G-d also wants responsibility, so, having more children than can reasonably be cared for PROPERLY simply can not be the intent of the command. Overpopulating the world is clearly not the intent of the biblical commandment.
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I love free beer and motherhood too!
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How many articles did Rosina count before making that ridiculous statement connecting annonimity with abortion. I didn't see one person who chose not to give their name making an abortion connection. I don't think that using some form of birth control is outside of the traditional Jewish belief system. Maybe, I'm wrong, I thought about having children when I was married, but my husband didn't like kids,and said not to have them for him. i grew up in a very abusive home, not just physical, but emotional as well as sexual. Looking back on my earlier life, I know that I had not gotten my head straightened out enough, I could tell by the firecracker temper that I had, that I might just as easily repeated my mother's bad parenting, looking back I realize that I probably would have beaten any children I had just as badly as my mother did. Also, my husband died after less than 10 yrs of marriage and without any real skills and no college education, i have no idea how I would have managed.
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Thank you anonymous from Arlington. I couldn't agree with you more and frankly am flabbergasted by the naïveté or rather "head in the sand" perspective of this article. If there is one thing I'm certain of, it is that we can not possibly do enough to reverse the environmental degredation and destruction that we humans are causing on global scale, but try we must. The pressures on natural systems and natural resources caused by over population and consumption and the devastating consequences already occurring and destined to be exacerbated, can only be curtailed by curbing the trajectory of exponential population growth. Perhaps for the love of all of G-d's children and future generations, a little self restraint would be prudent.
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While I want to wholeheartedly agree with your conclusions because I believe they come from a good man, emotion may have colored or overpowered a certain amount of your common sense. Unless very sheltered, you'd know that the cost of raising children is usually the first consideration, and the ability to raise them to have every possible advantage in a competitive world. In a large family, it's a scramble, unless you are a Rockefeller, just to keep everyone in school shoes, books, food, medical bills (and without asking the government for handouts, I would hope). Each child receives proportionately less of the pie, not to say that happiness and wholesome values don't reign supreme, for I think they can. When anyone can lose their job tomorrow, the house next month, how can we risk bringing 10 children into the world? Rely on G-d? Yes, but..."Trust in G-d, and tie up the camel" Belief is no substitution for personal responsibility. I wish your way worked. I truly do. Shalom.
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