Conservative Judaism/Medical beliefs

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Expert: - 12/11/2003


Question
I am a 29 year old nursing student.  I am writing a paper on health care beliefs for Jewish people.  Do you have any special practices or beliefs about medical procedures or hospitalizations?  I don't want to misinform the rest of my class, and I can't find a lot of information on the subject.  Thank You for your help.

Answer
Dear Crystal,

Thanks for writing.

While we don't assist in class assignments, I hope that I can help point you in some useful directions.

First of all, in the simplest terms: we do nothing to harm and we may not act to hasten death or take a life. We may mollify pain even if it threatens life (cancer, morphine, etc.) but we would not facilitate death "even by raising the pillow" as the phrase is in the 2000 year old Talmud.

Secondly, life takes precedence over all ritual obligations and even most ethical and moral imperatives except for forbidden sexual relations, e.g. incest, and taking the life of another, e.g. murder. One can violate the Sabbath, dietary laws, etc. to save a life.

There is a diffeence of opinion whether one is obliged to be a martyr or not for the faith; I prefer the opinion that life comes first and one can always return to one's faith from a forced conversion to another faith.

Judaism supports scientific research of every sort, e.g. stem cell, that might result in the saving of human life. Judaism therefore would also support all forms of social programs that would provide for the elderly, the poor, etc.

I am listing below web sites and resources that should be helpful.

Good luck

Rabbi Dov



http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/

http://shamash.org/trb/judaism.html

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/index.jsp

Local or synagogue library: “Encyclopedia Judaica� (Keter publishing)

http://www.maven.co.il/

http://www.MyJewishLearning.com

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/index.html

http://www.machers.com/directory/Jewish_Search_Engines/

http://www.arhs.net/Society/ReligionandSpirituality/Judaism/

http://www.uscj.org/metny/bellmobj/jnet2.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/

http://www.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html

http://www.libraryspot.com/

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/

http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/

http://www.freeality.com/libraries.htm

http://fossick.com/eText.htm  

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Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner

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Write to me with questions about Jewish customs and law, history, philosophy and tradition for answers from a Conservative perspective or conversion. I am a graduate of The Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. Having served in congregational pulpits since 1970, I now am President of the Foundation For Family Education, Inc. a non-profit educational endeavor. I established it to create new formats of hands-on programs and provide free educational downloads at www.jewishfreeware.org. In addition to general informational questions I welcome your questions about programs for social action, outreach to dual-faith families, inter-faith clergy projects, healing services, education for conversion, adult education for the congregation and the community. If you have questions about Informal and Formal Education I am ready to share my extensive experience with Youth Activities, Camping and Religious School/Hebrew High School on a congregational, community and national/international level.

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I have served on the National Youth Commission for more than 25 years and serve on the Boards of the Conservative Zionist movement MERCAZ and the World Council of Synagogues. I have always dual-families and taught candidates for conversion with a great sense of fulfillment. I am very proud of 25 years on the Jewish camping staff of Camps Ramah. My greatest source of pride is my family! Ask me about them, please!:-)

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