Boys’ spare parts are used in a year of famine
Hello, Your Honor.
The Gemara in Tractate Ta’anit, page 11, says that those who are “spared from having children, serve in a year of famine,” and according to some jurists, they must serve in order to have children.
Isn’t it, if you’re sorry, irresponsible and perhaps even cruel to bring up children in such a situation? After all, in their time, if there was no rain, people would die of hunger! So what’s the point of bringing children into the world? It not only endangers the lives of the children, but also the lives of the parents themselves…
Of course, if someone fears for the very life of the other child or for their own life, they should not bring him into the world. It’s simple and doesn’t need to be said at all.
As a general rule, refraining from having children during years of famine (for those who observe the commandment of Pur) also does not stem from the fear that we will not be able to feed them, but from participating in the sorrow of the world. See the context in which this halacha is presented in Rambam, Halacha Taaniot 3:8. Therefore, if a person does not observe the commandment of Pur, this value outweighs the value of participating in the sorrow of the world, and therefore it does serve as his bed.
This is indeed a simplification, but see Ritva there and Namukyi in the name of “others”. And so in the response to Meil Tzedakah Si’ Ranev – that the reason is so that they will not be “weak in temperament” (By the way, it is interesting what Ritva and Namukyi wrote there that can be read “dark” in the right-hand translation!9)
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