NOACH 5785
Where have all the Babies Gone?
My friends, the foundations of American are shaking. No, I’m not talking about the presidential elections in 3 days. I’m talking about something much more important—if you can believe that!
Few statistics reflect the decline of America more than its fertility rate which currently stands at 1.84 children per couple—significantly below the replacement level of 2.1. Incredibly, most developed nations are worse! As Wilfred Reilly—professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University writes: “Young people in the West increasingly resemble captive panda bears, who have to be pushed into one another and bribed with delicacies to be persuaded to mate.”
Low birth rates are a telltale sign of a nation’s decline. An aging population leads to fewer working people, making it harder for the economy to grow. Oh, in case you’re wondering, the birthrate among Jews is slightly better, but the number of Jewish women now choosing not to have children is alarming!
Why are Americans not having children? Perhaps a cryptic passage in last week’s parsha can shed some light. The Torah (Gen. 4:23-5) describes a strange conversation between Lemech —a descendant of Cain—and his 2 wives: And Lemech said to his wives, “Adah and Tzilah, hear my voice; O wives of Lemech, give ear to my speech. I have killed a man for wounding me, a child for bruising me. If Cain is avenged 7-fold, then Lemech 77-fold.”
Why did Lemech say to his wives, “Hear my voice?” Apparently, they wouldn’t listen to him. Lemech said he killed a man and a child. What’s going on here? Rashi, based on the Midrash, fills in the backstory: Lemech, who was blind, went hunting with his son, Tubal-Cain. Tubal-Cain spotted his ancestor Cain, who was hunched over and appeared to him as an animal. He told his father to draw the bow, pointed it at the target, and Lemech shot and killed Cain. But when Lemech realized he had accidentally killed his great-grandfather Cain, he clapped his hands together in anguish—accidentally clapping his son’s head between them, killing him.
After this tragic story unfolded, Lemech’s wives wanted nothing to do with him. According to the Midrash, Lemech then sought advice from the wisest and oldest man in the world—Adam, who still alive. Adam advised his wives: “Return to your husband and fulfill your obligation [to be fruitful and multiply].”
Lemech’s wives responded to Adam: “Correct yourself 1st. Didn’t you separate from your wife Eve for 130 years after your son Abel died? Immediately, Adam reunited with Eve and bore another son, Seth.”
It’s a strange story, but—in an important way—it speaks to us. After Cain murdered his brother Abel, human society began to spiral downwards. For 7 generations, from Cain to Lemech, human beings followed Cain’s example—building a society characterized by selfishness, greed, theft and murder. Like Cain, their attitude towards Gd was purely selfish and transactional—they offered sacrifices so Gd would bless them with riches and prosperity. People lived for nothing more than themselves. In such a setting, human life becomes worthless.
Seeing this, Lemech’s wives separated from him refusing to have more children. You see, if life is about nothing more than satisfying your base desires, what’s the point of having children? Why invest the effort to raise another generation that has nothing meaningful to live for?
My friends, that’s us, isn’t it? Our hedonistic culture has lost its meaning. All of us here can attest that children are expensive and require never-ending attention and hard work! And so, fewer people are getting married. Without Gd, without a higher purpose, there’s no compelling reason to raise children to follow in our footsteps.
When society has fallen this far, what can be done? The next verse in the Torah tells us: Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth. Adam realized that the people of the world—essentially the descendants of Cain—were spiritually lost. So, he returned to Eve and together they brought a new line into the world: Seth and his descendants. Seth would be a NEW kind of man—the ancestor of Noah.
After the flood of Noah in our parsha, the Torah (Ber. 10:1) tells us: “These are the descendants of the sons of Noah: Shem, Cham and Yafet; children were born to them after the flood.” Why does the Torah add “after the flood” since the flood had already happened in the narrative? Simple, after experiencing the destruction of their world, their communities and everyone they knew, after the trauma of such devastation, the Torah is telling us they had the courage to bring children into the ruins of the world—“after the flood.”
Today, even under the constant threat of war with its missiles, rockets and drones, Israelis have found this same courage. Israelis average more than 3 children per family, and tens of thousands of Jews make Aliyah moving to Israel each year—even during the war! This week Doron Katz-Asher, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7th along with her daughters Raz (4) and Aviv (2) and released after 49 days of captivity last November, announced she is expecting her 3rd child with her husband Yoni! She said: “Bringing life into the world, a year after I almost lost my own, is the greatest gift we could ask for in the new year. My ray of light in the darkness.” After the flood, after her trauma!
Wow! Where did she find such courage? It comes from realizing that despite all of Israel’s problems, living in Israel has purpose and meaning and hope for the future. Israel with its advances in technology, medicine and science has raised the standard of living of the world. More and more Israel’s higher moral standard is a model for a world—moral even during war. But the world refuses to see it. Where would the world be today had Gd not chosen the children of Jacob? Perhaps they would have stopped having children long ago.
When Israel was going through difficult economic times in the late 1970s, member of Knesset, Shmuel Tamir, was particularly bothered that women were getting pregnant when they couldn’t afford to raise their children. The rabbis were adamant that abortion was forbidden. Tamir went to Rav Arye Levin—the renowned Tzadik of Jerusalem—to give him a piece of his mind. Listen to an account of this meeting: With all due respect. You rabbis…aren’t sensitive to the problems people have. With all the things going on now we just can’t keep up with so many new children being born. If a woman comes to you and says she can’t handle it, you should find a way to permit her to have an abortion.
Rav Levin told him: It’s fascinating that YOU come to me with this request. Many years ago a young couple came with a similar request. They already had a small child. Both mother and father were still in school and the woman became pregnant and they didn’t know how they would manage. They asked me if they could terminate the pregnancy. I told them, “I feel your pain, but I must tell you ‘no.’…You have to have faith that Gd would support them…And most important is that child within you already has a neshama (a holy soul) and that soul was created for a purpose. If you terminate that pregnancy what happens to the mission of this holy soul?”
Tamir asked, “Well did they listen to you?”
“Yes, they listened to me. They had the child.”
Tamir sarcastically said, “Did that child fulfill his mission?”
Rav Levin then looked him squarely in the eyes and said, “Only you can answer that. That couple who came to ask if they could have an abortion were your parents and you were the child that was subsequently born that might have been aborted!!!”
Now that’s a “wow!” Is it serendipity or the hand of Gd? The Torah teaches that Gd created each one of us with a neshama—a holy soul with a specific mission to fulfill during his/her lifetime. Isn’t that stunning? What is your specific mission? That’s a subject for another time. But we must never forget that we are both body AND soul! And just as we must nurture and feed our bodies, we must nurture and feed our souls.
The survivors of hurricanes Helene and Milton this past month will tell us that we don’t really need all the stuff we have. They saw their stuff float away and still found meaning and purpose in their lives.
What does it mean to have a life of meaning and purpose—a good life? Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik noted that the after each creation, Gd says of His creations—the sun, moon, earth, heavens, vegetation, the animals—that they are ki tov (good). In what way were they good? Gd saw that they were fulfilling their mission. And when something fulfills its mission and purpose it is ki tov, good.
So, my friends, when is our life good? When are we good? When we fulfill our mission and our purpose. And part of our mission is to bring more holy souls into this world to bring a little more of the light of Heaven to our world. Amen!
