Transcript
Okay, Boker tov. So this week we have the privilege of reading not one but two פרשיות parshios, in case you've missed the פרשה parsha over יום טוב Yomtov, we'll catch up over the next two weeks, four פרשיות parshios. תזריע Tazria and מצורע Metzora, which primarily speak of the laws of צרעת tzaraas, we're familiar, primarily speak of the individual known as the מצורע metzora. תזריע Tazria begins on page 608 in the Stone חומש Chumash. And and the that's the bulk of both פרשיות parshios. The centerpiece is the laws of the מצורע metzora. מצורע Metzora, a conjunction of the words מוציא רע motzi ra, because the most famous reason which is given for the מצורע metzora of why he is afflicted with a spiritual leprosy is the לשון הרע lashon hara that he speaks. But the truth is, לשון הרע lashon hara is only one reason which is given for a מצורע metzora, and we know it cannot be the only reason because we have examples of children. You have the whole שאלה shayla, those who learned in the דף יומי daf yomi came across this, but the baby who's afflicted with צרעת tzaraas במקום מילה b'makom milah, a baby who has this leprosy in the place where the ברית bris is supposed to take place. So you have the issue of עשה asei and לא תעשה lo sa'asei, you have a positive commandment to do a ברית bris, which we'll see in a moment, you have a negative commandment, you're not allowed to cut off צרעת tzaraas. Which one supersedes the other? עשה דוחה לא תעשה Asei doche lo sa'asei? Positive supersedes the negative. So that baby, tell me, did that baby speak לשון הרע lashon hara? That baby resulted in צרעת tzaraas before his eighth day. By the time of his ברית bris, before his eighth day, he already has צרעת tzaraas. What, all the לשון הרע lashon hara he spoke in the crib? All the לשון הרע lashon hara in the nursery at the hospital, he talked about the other babies? Why, so clearly לשון הרע lashon hara cannot be, לשון הרע lashon hara cannot be the sole cause for the diagnosis of צרעת tzaraas. And the גמרא Gemara indeed gives a list of of a number of of others. And I would suggest that the core or the root of all of the reasons of צרעת tzaraas has to do with narcissism and egocentrality, people who are totally consumed by themselves. And therefore, it's not a coincidence that we see throughout our פרשיות parshios, תזריע Tazria and מצורע Metzora, that the rehabilitation of the מצורע metzora includes מחוץ למחנה בדד ישב mi'chutz la'machaneh badad yeshev. He sits outside the camp. Why? Because alone, in solitude, he can reflect. He can feel what it means to have ostracized and made others feel alone. Alone, he can recognize that the world doesn't revolve around him. In lone, he could recognize that he was really living alone even when he was among people because he was so focused exclusively only on himself. So if you look at all the reasons given for the for for צרעת tzaraas, it seems what they have in common is this notion of being utterly self-centered. So we tell this individual who's self-centered, you think the world's all about you, everything revolves around you? Why don't you go live outside the camp by yourself a little bit? You need to be alone. You're in timeout. This is the timeout מן התורה מניין min hatorah minayin? Where do we find timeout from the Torah? The מצורע metzora. The מצורע metzora. In fact, the גמרא Gemara says, he's one of the four individuals who's חשוב כמת chashuv k'meis. He's considered dead even when he's alive, the מצורע metzora. Why? Because that isolation, that alone, that loneliness, being מחוץ למחנה mi'chutz la'machaneh, there's nothing more more painful. Tragically, there are many who suffer from this than the loneliness, that intense loneliness. It's a very, very painful thing. So the מצורע metzora understands how he made others feel. By being lonely and experiencing it himself, it rehabilitates him, it's מידה כנגד מידה midah k'neged midah, it's a measure for measure, it it reveals to him how he made others feel. So that's the bulk of these two פרשיות parshios, they are, they deal with the laws of צרעת tzaraas, not only the צרעת tzaraas, not only the laws of a spiritual leprosy that affect or afflict the individual, but a צרעת tzaraas of בגדים begadim, of clothing. Clothing can sprout this leprosy, and צרעת tzaraas of בתים batim, homes. Homes can be afflicted. When the home is afflicted, it requires the owner to remove everything from the home. There's a whole process the owner has to go through. And again, while this seems so archaic to us and seems so we can't relate to it, but there's deep, deep symbolism in all of these laws which the lessons we can draw are are very inspiring. But that's not what I want to focus on today. The laws of the, the the מצורע metzora and how he rehabilitates himself, he doesn't shave and then he does shave, with the time period he waits, and the מקוה mikvah and the קרבן korban, what kind of קרבן korban he brings, the doves, and the two doves, and the we'll we'll leave all of that for another time. What I want to speak about is the beginning of פרשת תזריע parshas Tazria. Beginning of פרשת תזריע parshas Tazria, page 608. And here we have the laws of childbirth. The laws of childbirth. וידבר השם אל משה לאמור Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, God spoke to משה Moshe and he told משה Moshe to teach. דבר אל בני ישראל לאמור Daber el Bnei Yisrael leimor, teach the Jewish people and tell them, אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר isha ki sazria v'yaldah zachar, when a woman becomes conceives, becomes pregnant, וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar and gives birth to a male, to a boy, וטמאה שבעת ימים כימי נדת דותה תטמא v'tamah shivas yamim kimei nidas d'vosah titma. She becomes impure for a period of seven days as during the days of her נדה nidah, she shall be contaminated. A woman who menstruates becomes a נדה nidah, she is contaminated. Again, just as an aside quickly, because I want to correct this terrible misconception. This is not at all biased towards women. The idea that women are somehow unclean and we distance ourselves from them and we put them aside, that's not at all what the הלכה halacha meant. It's not at all what the Torah means. The Torah has a principle, many, many explain this. All of טומאה tumah derives from the um, from the loss of potential. Being טהור tahor, purity means potential. Purity means capacity, the ability to grow, to improve, to change, to achieve. When that potential is lost, it results in טומאה tumah, the loss of what could have been. That's why a deceased, a corpse, creates טומאה tumah. Because death, death negates the possibility of growth. At the moment of death, one can no longer achieve or grow. And what's the result of what's the result of the inability to grow? טומאה Tumah. So a corpse is an אב הטומאה av hatumah, a corpse is a source of טומאה tumah. A woman who has the capacity to conceive and create a child within her and menstruation is the loss of that capacity. Not like many misunderstand, a woman who menstruates does not bleed from the result of the egg. The egg is microscopic. She bleeds because the endometrial lining of her uterus had prepared for the implantation of a fertilized egg. That means to say, I think I shared this in the past, I've always found it remarkable, the woman's body is designed every month to conceive a child. Its expectation is conception. Its expectation is gestation. Its expectation is to house a human being. When it doesn't, it's almost disappointed and sheds the lining that it had been prepared to do. So that shedding of the lining is what creates the menstruation and that loss of potential of what could have been a child is what creates the status of טומאה tumah. So it's not at all a biased statement about the woman, she's dirty, she's and so on, but it's a question of potential. And the laws of טומאה tumah apply equally to men and women in different circumstances. Men as well can become טמא tamei. A זב zav, which also the laws we see here, זב, זבה, יולדת, ונדה zav, zavah, yoledes, and nidah, all have to bring the קרבן עלוית יורה korban olah v'yored. So the the זב zav is a man who has a seminal emission which is a form of a disease. I don't know if it's gonorrhea, exactly which disease it is, but it's a seminal emission which is not purely semen, it's some type of indication of a disease. He also becomes טמא tamei. So the Torah is not biased towards women in these laws, it's simply again, the loss of potential. So a woman conceives, she gives birth to a boy, seven days she's impure. וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו U'vayom hashmini yimol b'sar orlaso, on the eighth day, what happens? We just sang in אחד מי יודע Echad mi yodea, who knows eight? Eight of the days, eight of the days of the ברית bris. Snip, snip. ימול בשר ערלתו Yimol b'sar orlaso, we cut off his foreskin. ושלשים יום ושלשת ימים תשב בדמי טהרה U'shloshim yom u'shloshes yamim teshev b'dmei taharah. בכל קדש לא תגע B'chol kodesh lo siga. Then she has 30 days of of uh of uh purity. No matter what she sees, nevertheless she has the status of purity. And uh and after which she has to bring a קרבן korban. And if it's a girl, if she conceives and gives birth to a girl, then it's twice as much. וטמאה שבועיים כנידתה She's tamah shvuayim k'nidasa. Two weeks, 14 days she is, she can't go to the מקוה mikvah, and then 60 וששים יום וששת ימים v'shishim yom v'sheshes yamim. So 33 days and 66 days are the ימי טהרה yemei taharah, are the days where no matter what she sees, she remains pure nonetheless. That no longer applies to us. We don't have the קרבנות korbanos, the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, the 33, 66 days, but the 7 and 14 days still do apply to us. They apply to us significantly. Now they don't apply full gestation, a woman who gives birth usually can't get to the מקוה mikvah before six weeks. Women bleed for a prolonged period after giving birth. You know, there's a lot that needs to cleanse itself. So it usually takes a long time, as much as six weeks to finish bleeding or finish bleeding plus get שבעה נקיים shiva nekiyim, seven clean days before she can go to the מקוה mikvah. But if a woman has רחמנא ליצלן Rachmana litzlan a miscarriage early on, I unfortunately get this question, I won't say often, thank God, but often, too often. A woman has a miscarriage and she wants to know, when can I start counting my clean days to be able to go to the מקוה mikvah? So if you know what it was, if it was a boy, then you need seven days, then you can start the seven clean days and go to the מקוה mikvah. If you know it was a girl, you need 14 days before you can count the seven clean days. If you don't know what it was, then you have to be מחמיר machmir to assume that it might have been a girl, which would require 14 days before you can count the seven clean days. That we derive from here, that the טומאת יולדת tumas yoledes, that a יולדת yoledes, a woman who gives birth, has to wait before she can begin her seven clean days, from the Torah she doesn't need seven clean days. She could have gone to the מקוה mikvah directly after the seventh day or the 14th day. But we treat this woman also having the rules of a זבה zavah, whatever, not for now, and therefore she needs seven clean days, but she begins counting the seven clean days either after seven days or 14 days after giving birth. I want to look at a few of the מפרשים meforshim here and then get to the separate topic which we still need to get to and and hopefully we'll have enough time. So look at Rashi, אשה כי תזריע Isha ki sazria. אמר רב שמלאי Amar Rav Simlai, כשם שיצירתו של אדם אחר כל בהמה חיה ועוף במעשה בראשית, כך תורתו נתפרשה אחר תורת בהמה חיה ועוף k'shem sheyetziraso shel adam achar kol behemah chayah v'of, b'Maaseh Bereishis, kach toraso nisparsha achar toras behemah chayah v'of. Now, normally the מפרשים meforshim will try to analyze the sequence or analyze the juxtaposition of our topics. So how did last week's פרשה parsha end? שמיני Shemini? What was the whole second half of שמיני Shemini all about? The laws of כשרות kashrus. A kosher versus a non-kosher animal. Interestingly, does the Torah use the term כשר kosher and טרף treif? No. What terms does the Torah use to describe כשר kosher and non-kosher? טהור Tahor and טמא tamei? Interestingly, איננו טהור eineno tahor. It uses טהור tahor and non-tahor. Part of the לשון נקיה lashon nekiyah, part of the Torah's, the Torah's focus on language, on being positive, on not creating terms which have negative connotations. So it describes kosher food and food that is not kosher. It doesn't call it טרף treif. תורה איננו טהור Torah eineno tahor. So anyway, so here you have in תזריע Tazria, Rashi wonders, what's the connection? So we have the laws of כשרות kashrus and they continue now with the laws of childbirth. What does one thing have to do with the other? So Rashi tells us, just like when it comes to the creation of the world, we have the laws of the creation of the animal kingdom and only on the sixth day after the animals and fowl and creepy crawlies and all the other things are created, only then do we have creation of man. So too now, we had the laws of animals and now we have the laws of the creation of man. So says Rashi, we're following the order of מעשה בראשית Maaseh Bereishis. It's a continuation of the order of מעשה בראשית Maaseh Bereishis. And what's the order of מעשה בראשית Maaseh Bereishis by the way? We go from simple to more advanced. If you look at the order even of the creation of the animal kingdom, it progresses in its complexity. And who is the highest in the animal kingdom? The human being. And what do some like to point out, by the way? What was created absolutely last, even after man? Woman. Woman was extracted from man. Some like to say she is the pinnacle of creation. Okay. We can argue with that. But anyway, it's debatable. It's debatable. So, so you see that you're progressing in complexity, maybe in sanctity. Certainly, the the human being is is the reason for which the world was created. So Rashi says, we follow the order, the sequence of מעשה בראשית Maaseh Bereishis here. Okay, the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra writes the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, אשה כי תזריע Isha ki sazria, אחר שהשלים תורת הטהור והטמא במאכלן, הזכיר טמא האדם והחל מן האשה היולדת כי הלידה היא בתחילה achar shehishlim toras ha'tahor v'hatamei b'machalan, hiskir tamei ha'adam, v'hechel min ha'isha ha'yoledes ki haledah hi b'techilah. After we went through purity and impurity with food, now we talk about purity and impurity with people and we begin with a pregnant woman because pregnancy is where it all begins. That's the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra. We're not following מעשה בראשית Maaseh Bereishis, for the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, it's a question of the laws of טומאה וטהרה tumah v'taharah. We're going through the laws of purity and impurity. So we followed pure and impure animals because what makes a non-kosher animal? It's impure. Impure not in the classic laws of טומאה tumah in terms of contact with it, but impure in terms of its identity. It's an impure animal. So then we talk about impurities within people and that begins with conception. רבנן אמרו שהאשה מזרעת תחלה יולדת זכר Rabbanim amru she'isha mazria techilah yoledes zachar. על כן וילדה זכר Al ken v'yaldah zachar. And we'll talk about this is the segue into our topic, but the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra quotes the גמרא Gemara which says that if a woman emits seed first, we'll explain what that means, possibly, then she conceives a boy. Therefore the Torah begins with a boy, וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar. ועל כן דרכו חכמי יון, שהזרע האשה וזרע הזכר מקפיא, וכל הבן מדם האשה V'al ken darku chachmei yavan she'zera ha'isha v'zera ha'zachar makfi, v'chol ha'ben m'dam ha'isha. ואין פירוש תזריע, תתן זרע, כי היא כמו הארץ V'yain perush tazria titein zera, ki hi kmo ha'aretz. He quotes Greek the Greek wisdom which says that the a woman emits a certain seed as well that a woman emits a secretion. Certainly man contributes the sperm, but a woman emits a secretion and zera ha'zachar makfi v'chol ha'ben m'dam ha'isha. The boy is determined from the blood of the woman. Now this is actually not true. Scientifically we know that the chromosomes which determine the gender are determined by a man. Some of us were reminded that often. So the gender is determined by the the man. The man is the one who's going to determine, not the woman. The woman doesn't contribute, we'll see possibly a little bit, but contributes very little if anything to the sex selection. The gender selection is determined by the man. But the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra is quoting the Greek wisdom. ואין פירוש תזריע, תתן זרע, כי היא כמו הארץ V'yain perush tazria titein zera, ki hi kmo ha'aretz. And that's how he understands because why does the Torah use the term אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria? What do you mean תזריע sazria? She is not, זרע zera is a seed. What what seed, what secretion is the woman contributing? אשה כי תזריע Isha ki sazria. If a woman contributes a seed, then וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar, then she has a boy. So Greek wisdom understood that the woman determines based on her contribution to conception, she determines the boy. And that will be our launching point to our discussion about gender selection in a moment. Let's just see a few more, a few more uh מפרשים meforshim. The רשב\"ם, רב שמואל בן מאיר Rashbam, Rav Shmuel ben Meir, רש\"י's Rashi's grandson, אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria, כי תתעבר בן זכר בין נקבה ki sisaber ben zachar bein nekeivah. The רשב\"ם Rashbam disagrees with the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra. כי תזריע Ki sazria is not referring to וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar. For the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, כי תזריע ki sazria, if she is מזרעת mazria, then she's definitely going to have a boy. We'll get to the laws of a girl later when he's מזרעת mazria. But if she's מזרעת mazria, if she has some sort of seed, then it'll be a boy. Says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, that's not how to read it. The proper way to read it is, אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria, if a woman conceives, dash, or semicolon, זכר zachar, if it's a boy, then טמאה שבעת ימים tamah shivas yamim. If it's a נקבה nekeivah, 14 days. So the רשב\"ם Rashbam sees אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria, not she's as real literally and therefore determining the gender, כי תזריע ki sazria means she has received seed. She's conceived. Right? כי תתעבר בן זכר בין נקבה Ki sisaber ben zachar bein nekeivah. אם זכר תלד, דינו כך Im zachar teiled, dino kach. אם נקבה תלד, כך וכך דינה Im nekeivah teiled, kach v'kach dinah. כולו בא אחר כך מפרש Kulo ba achar kach mefaresh. We give the general כי תזריע ki sazria, and then זכר zachar, here's the law. נקבה Nekeivah, here's the law. So you see the רשב\"ם Rashbam disagrees with the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra. The בעל הטורים Baal Haturim, it says אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria, and then shortly after it says והתקדשתם v'hiskadashtem. לאשה כי תזריע שצריך לקדש עצמו בשעת תשמיש L'isha ki sazria shetzarech l'kadesh atzmo b'shaas tashmish. Says the גמרא בשבועות Gemara in Shevuos, that one has to seek sanctity even in the moment of intimacy. That while we certainly um introduce the concepts of of romance and of physical pleasure into the bedroom, Judaism is not a prudish religion. We have modesty outside the bedroom, but within the bedroom we encourage romance, we encourage love, we encourage pleasure. But nevertheless, צריך לקדש עצמו בשעת תשמיש tzarech l'kadesh atzmo b'shaas tashmish. It doesn't mean that all rules are gone. We still do not become base animals, but rather there is a still a an aspiration for a level of sanctity during that moment. And the בעל הטורים Baal Haturim says that's hinted to in the connection between אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria and והתקדשתם v'hiskadashtem, the connection between conception and והתקדשתם hiskadashtem and sanctity. Okay, continuing. So look at the אור החיים Or Hachaim. The אור החיים הקדוש Or Hachaim Hakadosh asks a series of questions here which we're not going to look at because I want to get to our halachic tangential topic. But the אור החיים Or Hachaim says, first of all, why is it written let's look at the אור החיים Or Hachaim inside. Where did he go? There he is. למה הוצרך לומר כי תזריע וילדה Lamah hotzrach lomar ki sazria v'yaldah. Why does it have to say she conceives and gives birth? We don't believe it's possible to give birth without conception. Right? For the Jewish people, there's no such thing as immaculate conception. So why does it have to say וילדה v'yaldah? Why does it have to say כי תזריע ki sazria? It should just say וילדה v'yaldah. And וילדה v'yaldah will imply תזריע sazria. ולא הספיק לומר אשה כי תלד זכר V'lo hispik lomar isha ki seiled zachar. It should simply say, if a woman gives birth to a boy, here is the הלכה halacha. Why does it have to go all the way from the beginning? If she conceives, and she gives birth, and it's a boy, just say if a woman gives birth to a boy. That's question number one. Number two, Why does it say וילדה v'yaldah which implies for certain? ולא אמר אם תלד זכר V'lo amar im seiled zachar. Why does it say כי תזריע וילדה ki sazria v'yaldah, when she conceives and gives birth. Tragically, we know many conceive. One third of pregnancies end in miscarriage. One third. Many women don't even know that they had a miscarriage because so many of them happened so early on they think they had a heavy period. But many, many pregnancies, as much up to one third, end in miscarriage. So why does it say אשה כי תזריע וילדה isha ki sazria v'yaldah as if it's definitive. If only you conceive, then surely you will give birth. Asks the אור החיים הקדוש Or Hachaim Hakadosh. And moreover, who says אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר isha ki sazria v'yaldah zachar? If you conceive you have a boy. Who says? Half the people, אין ודאי שהזכר יוצא מהנקבה ein vadai she'zachor yotzei min nekeivah. There's no certainty you'd do a boy more than a girl. I think 51% of the population are boys. So okay, there's a little bit more, a fraction of a percent of a greater possibility you'll have a boy. But for all intents and purposes, if you conceive, it's a 50/50. You can have a girl, you can have a boy. Why does it sound so sure? אשה כי תזריע Isha ki sazria, then וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar for sure. Asks the אור החיים Or Hachaim. Furthermore, uh he asks, why is it in לשון עתיד lashon asid? תזריע Sazria? Why is it say in the future tense? אשה כי תזריע Isha ki sazria, in the future תזריע sazria. It should say, אשה כי תלד isha ki seiled. If a woman gives birth to a boy, here is the הלכה halacha. Why does it frame the הלכה halacha in the future tense? When she will conceive, here will be the law. Why not כי תלד ki seiled? When she gives birth, this is the law. After she gave birth, this is the law. אור החיים Or Hachaim asks all these questions. He gives answers. We're not going to look at it right now. I want to get to our topic. Okay, so those were a few of the פסוקים psukim. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar also discusses אשה מזרעת תחילה יולדת זכר isha mazria techilah yoledes zachar. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar also talks about this topic. But what what consumes the beginning of our first פרשה parsha, תזריע Tazria, is the notion of childbirth, is the notion of conception, and is the subtle, nuanced, but clearly present issue of gender selection. זכר, נקבה Zachar, nekeivah, different rules. Um, is the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra correct, the Greek wisdom, that the woman influences the choice? So that's the topic I want to look at. Look at your handouts, your source sheets, and uh if you're listening online, the source sheets should hopefully be there as well. So, gender selection. Are we allowed to influence, are we allowed to influence uh the gender? Everyone have a source sheet? Anyone need a source sheet? Everyone's good. Okay, so look at source number one. Source number one is the תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל Targum Yonasan ben Uziel. The תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, the Aramaic translation which by definition includes a commentary on Torah, in Genesis, tells us. Everyone understand? Okay, Jim. Everyone remember the story? Leah and Rachel are both pregnant. Leah does a calculation. Leah understands based on her נבואה nevuah that she has how many, that Yaakov has how many wives? Four. I was lying in bed with my daughter last night putting her to sleep, my eight-year-old. I said, \"What are you learning in חומש Chumash?\" \"Oh, we're learning in חומש Chumash about שרי Sarai, and she couldn't have a baby, and אברהם Avraham, she wanted אברהם Avraham to have a baby, so she had this idea that maybe אברהם Avraham could have another wife, and from that wife she'll have a baby and it'll be like it's her baby.\" And I was waiting for my daughter to say, \"You can have more than one wife?\" or like, but she didn't. It's חומש Chumash, she's learning it and that was, it seemed normal for her. Okay, ברוך השם Baruch Hashem. Anyway. So, so Yaakov has how many wives? God bless him. He has four wives. Two wives and two concubines, also wives. But Yaakov has רחל Rachel and לאה Leah, and בלהה וזלפה Bilhah v'Zilpah. So he has four wives. And how many שבטים shvatim, through prophecy, did לאה Leah and רחל Rachel know that they were going to have, Yaakov was going to have? Yaakov was going to be the progenitor of 12 tribes. So if you do the simple math, 12, even at this early hour of the morning, 12 divided by 4 is three. So what happens? Rachel calculates that she has hers, and she calculates who has one? Rachel's not going to have a tribe. So they're both pregnant, so so Leah davens that the, that in utero, there'd be a switch. There'd be a switch. And what ends up happening? Leah asks for a switch. Rachel has יוסף Yosef and Leah has דינה Dinah. It means to say originally Rachel was pregnant with דינה Dinah and Leah was pregnant with יוסף Yosef, but they davened, Leah davened, and according to the תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, there was a switcheroo. There was a switcheroo. I don't know whether I should say this. My mother hates that I suggest this, but you know, ברוך השם Baruch Hashem I had six girls, I had a son, and two weeks ago my brother who had four boys just had a daughter. So who knows? I say, you know, who knows? You add to that the fact that for two months we were told that I was having a seventh daughter and it turned out to be a boy. So who knows? Who knows? Maybe Hashem performed this miracle. Certainly not in my זכות s'chus, my brother's זכות s'chus, he deserves it. But who knows? So the תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל Targum Yonasan ben Uziel says you see it's possible to have a switch in utero. Now what's the appropriateness of of sex, and look at the גמרא בברכות Gemara in Brachos, source two. Brachos samech amud aleph. מץ רב יוסף, ואחר ילדה בת ותקרא שמה דינה Matz Rav Yosef, v'achar yaldah bas v'tikra shmah Dinah. Leah had a daughter and called her דינה Dinah. מאי ואחר Mai v'achar? What does it mean afterwards? אמר רב, לאחר שדנה לאה דין בעצמה ואמרה Amar Rav, l'achar she'danah Leah din b'atzmah v'amrah, after Leah rendered this דין din, this judgment, שנים עשר שבטים עתידים לצאת מיעקב, שישה יצאו ממני, וארבעה מן השפחות, הרי עשרה. אם זה זכר, לא תהא אחותי רחל אפילו כאחת השפחות shneim asar shvatim asidin latzeis m'Yaakov, sheisha yotzu mimeni, v'arbaah min hashfachos, harei asarah. Im zeh zachar, lo tehei achosi Rachel afilu k'echad hashfachos. If if if this is a boy, my sisters is going to only have one, not even two. The the concubines each had two, adding up to four. She's going to have less than the concubines. מיד נהפכה לבת Miyad nehfchah l'vas. Immediately her fetus was transformed into a female. ותקרא שמה דינה V'tikra shmah Dinah. That's why it says ואחר v'achar, after she davened for the switch to be pulled, then she gave birth to a girl whom she named דינה Dinah. Now what are the two motivations for to daven this way? Well, three, I guess. Leah had her motivation that her sister not be inferior to concubines, not a motivation I think that we have contemporarily. But we have two other motivations. One would be to be יצא yotzei the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu. The מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu requires, at least according to בית הלל Beis Hillel, which is what we paskin. The מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu is only fulfilled with the with a son and a daughter. בית שמאי Beis Shammai says two boys, we follow בית הלל Beis Hillel that you need a boy and a girl. It applies only to the man. The הלכה halacha of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu, the obligation of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu applies to the man. So we'll see in a moment, but we'll we'll get into that. It's a good point. But there's a second motivation, which is gender infertility. People who have one of many gender and they seek to have the other gender. The question we're going to look at is what is the appropriateness of trying to influence the gender? What's the appropriateness of trying to influence the gender? So what do you see? You see from the גמרא Gemara that we just saw and you see from the תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, it didn't criticize Leah for wanting to switch the gender. It didn't say, Hashem bestows what you get what you get and you don't get upset. It didn't say that. It it seems to uh endorse the idea of trying to influence the gender. And if you think that's the only way of trying to influence the gender, look at source number three. Tana Rabbanan, says the גמרא בנדה, דף ל\"א Gemara in Niddah, daf lamed aleph. בראשונה היו אומרים, אשה מזרעת תחלה יולדת זכר, איש מזרע תחלה יולדת נקבה B'rishonah hayu omrim, isha mazria techilah yoledes zachar, ish mazria techilah yoledes nekeivah. ולא פירשו חכמים את הדבר עד שבא רבי צדוק ופירשו V'lo pershu chachamim es hadavar ad sheba Rabbi Tzadok v'persho. So the גמרא Gemara says a tradition which is linked to a פסוק pasuk. What's the tradition? This is what the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra was alluding to. If a woman emits seed first, she bears a male. If the man emits seed first, they bear a female. What it means is that a woman has certain secretions when there's a certain pleasure and those secretions, if she experiences the pleasure and thereby the secretions first, it will influence to be able to produce a boy, and if not, then it will influence to produce a girl. Now, are these, is this an absolute recommendation? No, it's talking about um, it's talking about on the whole. It's a generalization, statistically. So what do you see from this גמרא Gemara? We'll have to explain this גמרא Gemara in a moment. But more than anything else, what do you see from this גמרא Gemara? The גמרא Gemara is giving advice how to influence the gender. So clearly, we're not, we don't judge negatively somebody who wants to influence the gender. Someone who comes and says, I don't know, I have six of one gender and I desperately want the other. Do we say to them, you fool, whatever Hashem gives, he gives, be happy with your lot. Now, of course, we say if you have healthy children, you should be happy and what a gift and what a blessing. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. If you have healthy children, it's the greatest gift ever, and never take it for granted and nothing else matters including the gender. However, that said, people want to be יצא yotzei the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru u'rvu or they want a legacy or they want whatever the case may be. So do we judge them and say, be happy with what you have, Hashem determines, how dare you try to influence the gender? You see from our גמרא Gemara, no. That it's perfectly permissible. The גמרא Gemara not only is okay, not only sees as legitimate influencing the gender, the גמרא Gemara says, let me give you some advice. Let me tell you how to do it. Now, what is this advice? There is a famous book by Dr. Shettles, Dr. Shettles who called \"How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby.\" It's debated within medical circles whether there's any legitimacy to this book. Is it hocus pocus, witchcraft? Is it actually based on on medicine? This Dr. Shettles, the Shettles method. So in his book, he actually quotes this גמרא Gemara. Incredible. In his book, he quotes this גמרא Gemara. And he talks about the following, on the right-hand column. Dr. Shettles found numerous references dating back into the last century, alleged influence female orgasm can exert on sex selection. Even the תלמוד Talmud compiled centuries ago notes a connection between female and the sex of the offspring. The termination of sex takes place at the moment of cohabitation, the תלמוד Talmud declares. When a woman emits her semen before the man, the child will be a boy, otherwise will be a girl. The man if he wanted a boy was directed therefore to hold back. This was interesting in and of itself, meshing as it did with the reports of researchers in more recent times. So Dr. Shettles is astounded that research today simply endorses what the תלמוד Talmud knew 2,000 years ago. And he talks about why that should be. It is certainly beyond the scope of our topic. I think I am probably blushing enough already. But essentially what he talks about is that these secretions create uh it influences the um, you know, the different sperm that carry different chromosomes have different rates, have different swimming capacity. So whether they will get through where they need to get through to arrive at the destination to create conception is influenced by the secretion that the woman contributes. Certain secretions will create an environment that's more favorable to the male sperm to be able to get through. And if that secretion is not there, then the male sperm is more likely to die before he's able to swim to the destination, leaving only the female sperm to get through. So there's tremendous variables, tremendous variables. Timing it with ovulation. Ovulation also influences the uh determination. Position, and secretions, and the man's sperm count in terms of the chromosomes, male sperm and female sperm. This is beyond my scope and beyond our scope. But what I want to share with you is that the גמרא Gemara itself clearly endorses or is okay with influencing gender selection. A, because it gives advice, and B, remarkably, Dr. Shettles and his modern research which shows this, the question of secretion and the question of the environment and which sperm can can swim the fastest because of the the pH balance that's created. All of that which is only discovered recently says Dr. Shettles, has already been, it's already been declared 2000 years ago in the Talmud. Now today we have more advanced methods. Today there are more advanced methods. And to give you just two of them. One of them is called Microsort, source number five. Microsort is actually just one brand name. It's like Kleenex. They're tissues, Kleenex is just the brand. Microsort is the brand. But the concept is called FCS, flow cytometry separation. And the idea is that you can do sperm sorting. It's based on the measurable difference in the quantity of genetic material they contain. So the sperm absorbs a dye, attaches to the DNA, and when exposed to a laser light, it fluoresces, and therefore by spinning the sperm and using a certain kind of filter, you can make two piles. A pile of the male sperm and a pile of the female sperm, and then you get to choose which pile you want to insert into the woman, and if she conceives from that insertion, that injection, then she will hopefully conceive. Now, those piles are not exact. When you have a filter, things always get through the filter. So, the piles, this is a, these statistics are somewhat dated, so the chain might be new statistics today, but a female pregnancy is up to a 95%, a 90% after sorting. And for a male, the chance is about a 73%. So the boy pile will have a 73% chance, in other words, there's only 73% chance that everything in that pile is boy. There's still a 27, 26% chance that there's girls in the pile. And for the girl pile, it's up to 90% that it's girls, there's a 10% chance that you're still going to end up with a boy. So this possibility is imperfect, depending which gender you're going through more imperfect, but it certainly will increase your chances. That's one method. Another method, which is much more expensive, but is an absolute method, is called PGD, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. PGD coupled with IVF. PGD means you extract, you have a sperm sample from the man. You you you take eggs from the from the woman. And now you take the eggs with the sperm and you fertilize as many of the eggs that you were able to harvest from the woman, and you look at what you have. Six, seven, eight fertilized eggs. And then you do a DNA analysis of the fertilized eggs. So now you know which egg is a boy, which egg is a girl, because they've already have a chromosomal determination. So you take whichever fertilized egg that you want, the boy or the girl, and you insert it into the woman through IVF, in vitro fertilization.Now, this A is very, very costly. It's not a cheap procedure, IVF, not covered by insurance. In Israel, it's free. In Israel, IVF is covered by insurance, and if you want to use IVF for sex selection, I think it's only after two or three, four, I don't remember how many, you have to have a certain number of one gender, and the law in Israel is that the ביטוח לאומי Bituach Leumi, the national insurance will cover IVF to try to get a child for, if you have a certain amount of one gender. Is it four? If you have four girls, let's say, then you can do. A total to get a total of four children. Four IVFs they'll cover. But I know that they'll also cover for for gender selection, but only if you have a certain number of one gender and you seek the other. I don't remember what that number is. But in America it could be very costly. Now when I say it's, it's absolute, it's absolute in that what you insert is the gender, excuse me, you want. What's not absolute is that, is that it will take. IVF doesn't always take, as we know. So, those are the two possibilities. One of the questions with this PGD, PGD is primarily used not to select a gender, but is to rid genetic disease. It's an amazing, amazing, I had a rabbi growing up in Teaneck who lost multiple children to Tay-Sachs. Multiple children to Tay-Sachs. And the whole he suffered terribly and the community with him. And that would never happen today. We've eliminated Tay-Sachs. Because even if we determine that both the mother and father are carriers, we simply do not allow them to conceive naturally. They only conceive through PGD. We look at the, at the, at the embryo before we insert it into the woman to make sure it's a healthy embryo. So we do IVF, in the lab they look at all the embryos. If any of them are unhealthy, we don't insert, we only insert healthy embryos. So you can eliminate genetic diseases because we have the ability to test for them and then by doing PGD, only implant the ones that are, the ones that are healthy. The the problem or the question is, they call the slippery slope argument. Let's say there's a couple that say, \"We have a boy and a girl, but you know what? I only want a daughter with blue eyes and blonde hair. I want a son who's going to grow to be over six feet. I want him to be athletic. I want him to have a certain IQ.\" Will we allow PGD? This is some of the question within the, within bioethicists are debating, the whole slippery slope question, you know, do you allow this IVF or PGD in order to make choices which are beyond moral choices, but personal choices? Not just that you want this gender, but you want this height, this look, this intelligence, this athleticism, this artistic ability, assuming you can test for those things.So, again, as we said, the question הלכתית halachically is not whether you're allowed to engage in sex selection. You absolutely are. The question is which method to use, A, and B, if you use one of these methods, are you יוצא yotzei, do you indeed fulfill the obligation of פרו ורבו pru urvu? Do you fulfill the obligation of procreation? Or since this method took place supernaturally so to say, I don't mean miraculous, but I mean beyond nature, it wasn't just a natural event, but it requires intervention, do you not fulfill פרו ורבו pru urvu if fulfilled through intervention? Is this successful? Have they found that those that have done this? Yeah, sure. It's always successful. I'm talking about they want a certain intelligence, a certain. Oh, oh, that. I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know whether through genetic testing you can determine intelligence. You probably could determine certain things like, or if you can't now, they will learn to determine eye color and height and those kinds of things. DNA, you could check the DNA to figure out what is the predominant. Right, you could check the predominant, the the dominant genes within the DNA which will produce the likely outcome of eye color and hair color and so on. So the kind of questions that we're going to talk about, we only have a limited amount of time left, but are you יוצא yotzei פרו ורבו pru urvu? Do you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah with IUI or IVF? If you do fulfill the מצוה mitzvah, maybe it's obligatory. If you have five of six, 10 of one gender, maybe הלכה halacha mandates that you're obligated to do IVF and PGD to fulfill פרו ורבו pru urvu? If indeed you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah in that way. How far does the obligation of פרו ורבו pru urvu go? Would it obligate you to spend $30,000 on IVF to have that other gender? מוציא זרע לבטלה motzi zera levatala. How do you get the sperm in order to test it? Is it a problem of extracting sperm outside of the body? The question of סכנה sakana. For a woman to undergo IVF, there's no actual, it's a very, very tiny percentage, but anytime there's a procedure, there's a level of of risk. And ethical considerations to this question. So let's take a look, and we're going to have to go somewhat quickly through these sources because we have limited time. And I want to refer you, there are many, many articles when I originally prepared the שיעור shiur which was many years ago. There's an article by Richard Grazi and he's a doctor and Joel Wolowelsky, a rabbi, came out in 1993. There's a big discussion of it in the encyclopedia רפואית refuit by by Dr. Steinberg, Rabbi Dr. Steinberg. Rabbi Josh Flug, our own Rabbi Josh Flug has an article in the RJJ journal, The Journal of Contemporary הלכה Halacha. There's, where else did I find? Of course Dr. Bleich has articles, Rabbi Yitzchok Bleich has an article. There's a lot written on the subject, much more than what I'm going to share, but some of these are some of the key sources in this discussion.So the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru urvu, firstly. So the פסוק pasuk in בראשית Bereishis, source six, פרו ורבו ומלאו את הארץ וכבשוה pru urvu u'milu es ha'aretz v'kivshuha. After man is created, God tells him to be fruitful and to multiply. We have a הלכתי halachic mandate, הלכתי halachic obligation, continuity. To not have children is a selfish act. To think that the world ends at you, that the world is about us. Of course, circumstances have to allow, you have to find the right person, God has to bless us with the capacity to have children, but from our perspective, we have to give the greatest effort that we can to have children. That's a mandate, פרו ורבו ומלאו את הארץ pru urvu u'milu es ha'aretz. How do you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah? also. What? Celibacy is also. Celibacy is, well celibacy is obligated if you're not married. But, but trying to have children is an obligation. So, source number seven, the גמרא Gemara in יבמות Yevamos, the משנה Mishna in יבמות Yevamos says, בית שמאי אומרים Beis Shammai omrim, how do you fulfill this מצוה mitzvah? שני זכרים shnei zecharim, two boys. בית הלל אומרים Beis Hillel omrim, זכר ונקבה zachar u'nekeivah. And how does בית הלל Beis Hillel know that? שנאמר she'ne'emar, זכר ונקבה בראם zachar u'nekeivah bera'am. It says God created them male and female. So if we're trying to emulate God, the greatest imitation of God is having children, God gave birth so to say to male and female. We give birth to male and female to be in fulfillment of the מצוה mitzvah. Says the גמרא Gemara in source number eight, חגיגה דף ב Chagiga daf beis. How does one fulfill the מצוה mitzvah? Do you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru urvu through IVF? So said the גמרא Gemara didn't have IVF, but the closest the גמרא Gemara came was the following. שאלו את בן זומא sha'alu es Ben Zoma, בתולה שעיברה מהו לכהן גדול besula she'ibra mahu l'kohein gadol? If a virgin becomes pregnant, can she marry a כהן גדול kohein gadol? What's the question? The כהן גדול kohein gadol has to marry a virgin. A regular כהן kohein cannot marry a divorcee or a convert, but a כהן גדול kohein gadol can only marry a בתולה besula, a virgin. So the גמרא Gemara wants to know, can a כהן גדול kohein gadol marry a pregnant virgin? Now you should all be jumping up. Pregnant virgin? It's an oxymoron. How can you be a pregnant virgin? Again, we don't believe in that. Says the גמרא Gemara, מי חיישינן לשמואל mei chashinan l'Shmuel, דאמר שמואל d'amar Shmuel, יכול אני לבעול כמה בתולות בלא דם yachol ani liv'ol kama besulos b'lo dam. So the גמרא Gemara says, okay, maybe also you can get a pregnant virgin, שמואל Shmuel. שמואל Shmuel, everybody has a talent that they like to show off. So שמואל Shmuel, an אמורא Amora in the גמרא Gemara, had a certain talent. I won't say that he showed off about it, but he had a certain talent. What was שמואל's Shmuel's talent? He was able to engage in intimacy without breaking a woman's hymen. He was able to engage in intimacy without penetrating her in the sense that she would lose her בתולים besulim, her virginity. Okay, so דילמא שמואל לא שכיח dilma Shmuel lo shchiach. Says the גמרא Gemara, that's not what we intend to ask because that was a rare talent. That's not something that's usual. אמר להו amar lehu דילמא שמואל לא שכיח dilma Shmuel lo shchiach, חיישינן שמא באמבטי עיברה chashinan shema b'ambati ibra. So how do you come to an example of a pregnant virgin? Says the גמרא Gemara, you know how? A woman who goes into the bath, who goes into a pool, not mixed swimming, God forbid, but she goes into the pool after men were there, and if a man had emitted his seed into the pool, and then somehow she absorbs that seed, she can become pregnant and nevertheless be a virgin. She will have never had intimacy, and yet she will be, and yet she will be pregnant. Now the גמרא Gemara, by the way רב משה Rav Moshe quotes this גמרא Gemara in a תשובה teshuva where רב משה Rav Moshe has a whole discussion about, you know, the question of of using another man's seed if you're trying to have children. Let's say the man's doesn't have a high enough sperm count, so you want to get a sperm donation in order for the woman to conceive. Is there a problem, asks רב משה Rav Moshe, of adultery, of having an affair? רב משה Rav Moshe says no, you see that that's only prohibited with an act of intimacy, but to absorb without the act of intimacy doesn't affect the status, as in the case of the pregnant virgin, who remains a virgin. Right? So you see the גמרא Gemara talks about this example of מתעברה באמבטי mis'abra b'ambati, of becoming pregnant in the bath. So upon this the בית שמואל Beis Shmuel, source number nine says, יש להסתפק אשה שנתעברה באמבטי אם האב קיים פרו ורבו אם נקרא בנו לכל דבר yesh l'histapek isha she'nis'abra b'ambati im ha'av kayam pru urvu im nikra b'no l'chol davar. If a woman conceives outside of an act of intimacy, i.e., in the bathtub, or today in a much more high-tech fashion through IVF, does the man fulfill the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru urvu? And moreover, is this the father? In other words, הלכתית halachically is a man only declared a father when he is the one who placed the seed directly in the woman, and he's not called a father if the seed arrived at the destination independent of him? Or no, he's called the father as long as genetically it's his material. Says the בית שמואל Beis Shmuel, I'm not sure. It's a ספק safek. And he brings רבינו פרץ Rabbeinu Peretz who says חיישינן ליוחסין choshshinan l'yuchsin and לכן יוצא l'chein yotzei. Right? He says you have to worry that yes it is the father and therefore we have to consider that if he has other children to make sure that the result of this נתעברה באמבטי nis'abra b'ambati will not marry his other children because you can have an issue of incest. So here you have an example of the of this exact הלכתי halachic question of, is this the father? So if the father's a כהן kohein and the child is produced through IVF, will the child be a כהן kohein? If the father, does the father יוצא yotzei פרו ורבו pru urvu? This is exactly, exactly our question. Rabbi Bleich writes in his article in source 10, in 1905 a German court was asked to consider the case of a woman who claimed without her husband's knowledge she had scooped up fresh semen ejaculated by him on the bedclothes and introduced it into her genital tract, causing a pregnancy. The result in the birth of a baby girl. A trial court in Koblenz ruled this artificial whatever that word is, was an illegal act. That decision was upheld in 1907 by an appeals court in Cologne. Shortly afterwards, in a second remarkably similar case, a woman claimed to have discovered freshly ejaculated semen, probably the result of a nocturnal emission, which she inserted. Despite testimony denying pregnancy could have resulted from the act, the appeals court affirmed the legitimacy of the child. Later the German Supreme Court took a similar position, but you see from Rabbi Bleich's article, this is not just some crazy case of the גמרא Gemara. Again, medicine will debate the potency of sperm sitting on the bed covers or within a bathtub, whether it can indeed create, whether it can indeed fertilize, but at least this German court debated this issue. So you see that as recently as the 20th century, this question, this question came up. The ת\"ז Taz in source 11 rejects the proof. The ערוך לנר Aruch LaNer, Rav Yaakov Ettlinger, concludes that one is not יוצא yotzei the מצוה mitzvah, that if you, and how do you know that? Because if you look at our פרשה parsha, אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר isha ki sazria v'yaldah zachar, if a woman conceives and gives birth. So you see that if the woman conceives and gives birth, we derive many הלכות halachos from there. For example, the הלכה halacha is that a ברית bris, וילדה זכר v'yaldah zachar, then she gives, then when is the ברית bris? On the eighth day. So says the, say many, says the הלכה halacha, when is it that if she conceives and gives birth, the ברית bris supersedes שבת Shabbos? Once it's אשה כי תזריע isha ki sazria, when she conceived naturally. But and gives birth naturally by the way. Let's say she gives birth through Caesarean section, a C-section, is the ברית bris of that child דוחה שבת docheh Shabbos? Absolutely not. A child born through C-section whose eighth day falls on שבת Shabbos or יום טוב Yom Tov, the ברית bris is on the ninth day, not the eighth day. It only supersedes שבת Shabbos if conception is natural and if birth is natural. But if birth is, I don't want to call it, not natural, or supernatural, but is not in the natural way, but through a C-section, then it doesn't supersede שבת Shabbos. So רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and all of these פוסקים poskim say that the same is true for conception. If a baby is conceived through IVF, the ברית bris will not be דוחה שבת docheh Shabbos. If a baby is conceived because that's not כי תזריע ki sazria, that's not natural fertilization, conception. So a baby conceived through IVF, the the ברית bris if it fell the eighth day on שבת Shabbos would not supersede, would not supersede שבת Shabbos. Okay, so the ערוך לנר Aruch LaNer says you're not יוצא yotzei פרו ורבו pru urvu, because that's not a natural way of conceiving. Most פוסקים poskim say you do fulfill the מצוה mitzvah, if not of פרו ורבו pru urvu, they say you fulfill another מצוה mitzvah. What's the other מצוה mitzvah? A פסוק pasuk in ישעיהו הנביא Yeshayahu HaNavi. Source 15. ישעיהו הנביא Yeshayahu HaNavi says, כי כה אמר ה' בורא השמים הוא האלוקים יוצר הארץ ועושה הוא כוננה לא תוהו בראה לשבת יצרה ki choh amar Hashem borei ha'shamayim hu ha'Elokim yotzer ha'aretz v'osah hu chonenah lo sohu vera'ah l'sheves yitzarah. God says, \"I created the world for it to be inhabited.\" This is a secondary מצוה mitzvah of לשבת la'sheves, a secondary מצוה mitzvah. I have a מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru urvu which is fulfilled by having a son and a daughter. I have a secondary מצוה mitzvah of שבת sheves which is to fill the world, continuity, and that I fulfill each and every child I have even beyond when I have a boy and a girl. So let's say my first two children are a boy and a girl, and then I have eight more, whatever gender they are, I have fulfilled פרו ורבו pru urvu with my first two children. I continue to fill a מצוה mitzvah of לשבת la'sheves with more children. So say most פוסקים poskim that you fulfill if not פרו ורבו pru urvu, but you fulfill at least the מצוה mitzvah of לשבת la'sheves if you have a child through through IVF. Okay, so again you see I brought you, we're going to be out of time, but I brought you all these sources. The שרידי אש Sridei Eish, the מנחת שלמה Minchas Shlomo, רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman, רב משה Rav Moshe in source 18 writes, יוצא בזה מצוות פרו ורבו כשטולדת אשה על ידי זה yotzei b'zeh mitzvas pru urvu k'shetulad isha al yedei zeh, a woman fulfill, you fulfill פרו ורבו pru urvu the husband, when a woman gives birth after IVF. The consensus is that you do fulfill the מצוה mitzvah in this way, but this is some of the discussion.Next, if indeed you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah, so if רב משה Rav Moshe, רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman, the שרידי אש Sridei Eish are correct, unlike the ערוך לנר Aruch LaNer, that you do fulfill the מצוה mitzvah of פרו ורבו pru urvu through IVF, then perhaps you're obligated. Maybe if you have not yet had children, had a boy and a girl, you can have 25 boys, maybe הלכה halacha mandates that you now need to spend 30 grand on IVF to have the girl. So are you in fact obligated to go to take extraordinary measures in order to fulfill a מצוה mitzvah? That's the question. It's a מצוה mitzvah. If I couldn't get a לולב lulav without spending $30,000, do I have to spend $30,000 to get, Rabbi can you, can I get a few more minutes? I'm running late. I'm running late. So if I have to spend 30 grand to take a lulav, to buy a לולב ואתרוג lulav v'esrog, must I? That essentially is the same question. Because if it costs me 30 grand to do PGD to do IVF to have that other gender, am I obligated to do it? That essentially is the question. So if you look at the מאירי Meiri in סנהדרין Sanhedrin, the מאירי Meiri in מסכת סנהדרין דף ס\"ה Maseches Sanhedrin daf samech hey says that we apply the principle from בבא קמא Bava Kama, לא יבזבז אדם יותר מחומש lo yevazveiz adam yoser mei'chomesh. The הלכה halacha is that in order to avoid a לאו lav, to avoid violating a negative prohibition, I have to spend all my money in the world. All my money. To avoid violating a negative prohibition where my life is not threatened. If my life is threatened, other than the three cardinal sins, of course, I give up my life rather than violate the negative prohibition. What's a negative prohibition? You're not allowed to eat non-kosher, you're not allowed to violate Shabbos, you're not allowed to adulter. You're not allowed to, well that would be one of the three cardinal. But in order to not violate a negative prohibition, I have to spend all of my money. But what about a positive מצוה mitzvah? To fulfill a positive מצוה mitzvah, do I have to spend all my money? The only way to get a kosher לולב ואתרוג lulav v'esrog, it's going to cost me, I have to take a mortgage on my house. Must I take a mortgage to fulfill לולב ואתרוג lulav v'esrog? So the principle the גמרא Gemara says, לא יבזבז אדם יותר מחומש lo yevazveiz adam yoser mei'chomesh. You don't have to spend more than 20% of your worth, of your savings. That's the most that you have to spend to fulfill a מצוה mitzvah. The רמ\"א Rema codifies this. What? חומש Chomesh is not? No. No. So as the Shulchan Aruch in source 20, page five, אם קנה אתרוג שראוי לצאת בו בצמצום im kana esrog she'rauy lotzeis bo b'tzimtzum. If you buy an esrog, the רמ\"א Rema says, מי שאין לו אתרוג שאר מצות עשה אין צריך לבזבז עליהם הון רב mi she'ein lo esrog she'ar mitzvos asei ein tzarich l'vazveiz aleihem hon rav. You don't, if you don't have access to an esrog, you do not have to spend an exorbitant amount of money. כמו שאמרו לא יבזבז אלא חומש אפילו מצוה עוברת k'mo she'amru lo yevazveiz ela chomesh, afilu mitzvah overes. As the גמרא Gemara says, you do not spend more than this amount. So therefore, obligated for? No, a woman is exempt from פרו ורבו pru urvu. פרו ורבו pru urvu is only incumbent upon the upon the man. So רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman has a תשובה teshuva in 1958 and he talks about, let's say a woman would have to undergo a surgery, a person has to undergo pain in order to fulfill a מצוה mitzvah. Must you undergo surgery, endure pain in order to fulfill a מצוה mitzvah? רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman in תשובה teshuva, says no, you're not obligated to perform, you're not obligated to perform painful surgery in order to fulfill the מצוה mitzvah. So, certainly in our situation, where it's a ספק safek if you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah. We said it's a debate, פרו ורבו pru urvu. While the majority say yes, there are those who say no. So A, it's a ספק safek. It's not absolutely certain that you fulfill the מצוה mitzvah. B, it's not certain that it works. A woman could undergo the painful procedure, could undergo the countless months of shots and treatments in order in anticipation of the IVF, and it still not work. So it's a ספק safek, it's a doubt whether you're יוצא yotzei the מצוה mitzvah, it's unclear. It's a doubt whether it will work. It's a painful procedure, and all to perform a positive commandment, the הלכה halacha is clear that she is not obligated. Not obligated. And you're not obligated to sustain discomfort in order to fulfill the מצוה mitzvah.Now, let's say you don't, not obligated, but we said it's allowed. The question is, how is it allowed? How is it allowed? Don't you have to waste seed in order to procure it? How do you get the husband's sperm in order to be able to use it to fertilize the egg to get the gender you want in order to be able to, in order to be able to insert it. This prohibition of wasting seed is a very serious one. We have it here, the גמרא Gemara in נדה Niddah, source 24, כל המוציא שכבת זרע לבטלה חייב מיתה kol ha'motzi shichvas zera l'vatala chayav misa. To waste seed is a capital crime, בידי שמים bidei Shamayim, it doesn't mean the rabbinic court puts you to death, but at the hands of heaven, it's a capital crime, the loss of potential. It's considered murdering a potential life inherent within every, within every sperm. So it's considered a very, very significant, רבי יצחק ורבי אמי אמרי Rabbi Yitzchak v'Rabbi Ami amrei, כאילו שופך דמים k'ilu shofech damim. To waste seed is tantamount to murder. You're taking a life. רב אסי אמר Rav Asi amar, כאילו עובד עבודה זרה k'ilu oved avodah zarah. It's idolatry. You see this is a very, very, very significant prohibition. So is there a permissible methodology? So רב עובדיה יוסף Rav Ovadia Yosef in source 25 in יביע אומר Yabia Omer, רב שלמה זלמן Rav Shlomo Zalman, אגרות משה Igros Moshe, אבן העזר Even HaEzer, a נשמת אברהם Nishmas Avraham in source 28, all of these sources essentially all concur that if the reason that you're procuring the sperm is in order to produce a child, that's not called wasting seed. Wasting seed means if a man is deriving pleasure but not in the proper way. Wasting seed means if it's not deposited in the proper place. That's called wasting seed. But to extract seed or for the man to extract his own seed for the purpose ultimately of fulfilling a mitzvah, be it to test the seed in order to get the sperm count, or in order to actually use the seed for the purpose of sperm sorting or IVF, the consensus is that this is not a prohibition. That this is not a prohibition. Some suggest nevertheless that the best way to extract the seed, there are הלכתי halachic condoms that have no spermicide in them, that have a tiny hole at the end of the condom so that it gathers the seed in a way which doesn't compromise it, and yet the tiny hole at the end maintains the possibility of it getting through, thereby not calling it wasting seed. So thereby therefore some פוסקים poskim suggest using that in order so a man would have normal intimacy with his wife and be able to derive the sperm either for the purpose of testing or procreation in that method. And many פוסקים poskim say that if that's not the best method or not a possibility, then a man can simply get the seed on his own, and as long as it's being used for the purpose of procreation, then it's something which is permissible. So we saw is that first of all, first of all, the Torah absolutely endorses gender selection. The story of רחל ולאה Rachel v'Leah and as well the גמרא's Gemara's advice that was only confirmed more recently and we saw Dr. Shettles quoted it in his book about sex selection, the גמרא Gemara itself, that the גמרא Gemara gives you advice how to influence the gender. The גמרא Gemara wouldn't give advice if it didn't condone the behavior. The question is are more advanced technology, our more advanced methods today, of either sperm selection, sperm sorting, or of PGD, is it permissible? And if it's permissible, are you obligated? We saw it certainly is permissible. Are you obligated? No, you're not obligated to take those extraordinary measures and to spend that money. And what about how do you do it through getting the sperm? According to almost all the פוסקים poskim, if the ultimate purpose is to procreate, then it's something which is permissible.
