A Handicap, So What?

The Joy of Children, Part 4

Some so-called religious people have a nonchalant attitude about abortion, and they claim that an embryo is not a full-fledged soul. I think that Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, knows a few more things about the human soul than any of us do. The Zohar in Parshat Shemot lists three hair-raising damages that abortion brings:

1. The world cannot stand a couple who abort their child;

2. Every abortion adds to the spiritual darkness of the world;

3. Abortion causes wars and additional strife in the world, famine, and disease, and makes Hashem His back on the world.

Is it a wonder that there’s so much strife in the world? We shudder every time there’s a terrorist attack in Israel. We shudder when a bus gets blown and 3 or 4 people get killed and another dozen are maimed for life. It’s front-page news. But do you know how many abortions there are in Israel alone? Dr. Eli Schussheim, director of the Efrat Organization, writes that over 50,000 abortions are performed yearly in Israel! You know what that means? In the last 40 years, we’ve lost 2 million Jews in Israel alone! And, since there are just about the same number of Jews in America as there are here in Israel, if the abortion rate is the same in America, then we’ve lost another 2 million Jews since 1970. Four million Jews? What a Holocaust! No wonder Hashem is upset with us. My beloved rabbi and spiritual guide Rav Shalom Arush told me that the abortions are what creates the terrorists. Hashem is saying, “Oh, you’re terminating the lives I entrust you with? Fine! I’ll send you a Nasralla and an Achmedinejad who’ll strive to take your lives away! It’s the ATFAT principle all over again. Who needs another Holocaust? Abortion is a white-collar government-sanctioned Holocaust. The Zohar says that all the war and the terror, together with the delay of Moshiach are all caused by the abortions.

Every single abortion delays Mashiach.

You can’t imagine how many abortions are performed for no reason. So many babies are born healthy after the doctors said they’d be defective. And let’s say that the child does have a defect or handicap. Some of our greatest sages were handicapped! The mighty Samson was crippled in both legs. So were the Koznitzer Maggid and the Maggid of Mezeritch. The Chazon Ish was sickly all his life. Rav Sheshet, one of the Gemara’s greatest scholars was blind.

Hold on America – Franklin D. Roosevelt was a cripple and Mickey Mantle had severe osteomyelitis. Would anyone say that they didn’t deserve to live? What about Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles? They were all blind! I don’t think the USA would be the USA without any of these personalities. So who says that the pregnancy of a child with a birth defect should be terminated? Most of the time, the doctors are mistaken and there’s no birth defect at all. And even if there is, with emuna, you know that if Hashem wants your child to be the future President of the United States, he or she will be, with or without a birth defect.

With emuna, a handicapped person realizes that he or she can’t attain their soul correction in a healthy body. A handicapped person with emuna lives a happy and productive life. Oftentimes, the physically handicapped have fewer emotional hang-ups than so many emotionally handicapped people. So who’s to decide that a person with two healthy legs is better than a person with crippled legs? Where do all these doctors get the right to send unborn babies into the white-collar gas chambers of abortion.

The Gemara in tractate Sanhedrin, page 57b, says, “One who spills human blood inside the human shall forfeit his own blood. What is ‘human blood inside the human’? This is the blood of the embryo in its mother’s womb!” The Gemara is hereby calling a person who terminates a pregnancy by the name of murderer. Since a religious court doesn’t give capital punishment to such a person, the sin of abortion is like a lingering unmitigated sword the Heavenly Court holds over a person’s neck. Who can deal with such severe judgments? And, if the sin of abortion is not atoned for in this world, a person is in for a rude awakening in the next world. These are not my words, but the words of the Zohar and the Gemara. Who can live a decent life if he or she has been severed from the Divine Presence, G-d forbid a million times over!

Today, there’s no capital punishment for abortion because we don’t have our Holy Temple and the Great Sanhedrin, the religious court of seventy wise elders. But, the Gemara tells us that even though we don’t have the Sanhedrin and the four types of death sentences, that doesn’t mean that people go unpunished. When there’s no justice in this world, there’s certainly justice in the Upper Worlds. We all hear about young people who have been stricken with terminal diseases or have suffered strange and unthinkable deaths in fluke accidents or head-on collisions. What don’t know what went on behind the scenes in such a person’s life. Such a person could very well have committed an abortion. And, since the Gemara says that a poor person or a childless person is comparable to being dead, the death penalty incurred by an abortion is often manifest in severe poverty or subsequent childlessness. It’s no joke at all.

The Heavenly Court views a father or mother that aborts as a murderer. Don’t think that I’ve exaggerated. Rav Shalom told me to tell the whole truth and not to hold back.

So many childless woman would give every possession they own in the world for a pregnancy. A pregnancy is the greatest gift in the world that Hashem could grant a woman. I appeal to you, beloved brothers and sisters. We the Jewish people are called the merciful sons of merciful parents. We lose our holy image when we become murderers, G-d forbid. And who can be so cruel as to murder his or her own child? The Stoliner Rebbe told me that the holy Rachmistrivker Rebbe told him that Hashem’s greatest gratification after the Holocaust is when another Jewish child is born. So a person that aborts is not only a murderer, but he’s robbing Hashem of His greatest gratification! No wonder that Rebbe Shimon says that abortions lead to calamities and cause Hashem’s Divine Presence to depart from this world, Heaven forbid.

Every ten minutes, an abortion takes place in Israel. And nobody cares if some medical committee of greedy doctor says to terminate a pregnancy. If Hashem gives life, no one has the right to take it away. Don’t make a decision that you’ll be sorry for posterity.

If you’ve already had an abortion, don’t despair. There is one way that you can atone for what you did. Help spread this article far and wide. Listen to our CD, “Children are Joy” and even better, help distribute them. Use your maaser money to prevent other people from making the tragic mistake of abortion.

If you’re thinking about having an abortion because you don’t have the ability – emotional, financial, or otherwise, contact the Efrat Organization; they’ll be glad to help you in any way they can. You can visit their website and write them from a contact form on the website.

Don’t ever forget – he who saves a life saves an entire world. May Hashem bless you all with wonderful children, and may we see soon see the full redemption of our people, speedily and in our days, amen!