Parshas Lech Lecha (5779)
Rabbi Shraga Simmons writes on Aish.com: The topic of cloning came to the fore in March 1997 when Dr. Ian Wilmut announced that "Dolly" the sheep had been born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Dolly was a clone, genetically identical to her cell-donor. Oregon researchers have since announced their cloning of monkeys, and scientists predict that human cloning is achievable within the next decade. [Click here to read the entire article: http://www.mnemotrix.com/aish/clone.html ]
The following humorous poem by M.M. Marshall highlights just a few of the issues that some of us might have with the prospect of human cloning:
On Cloning
If I were cloned which would I be,
I, myself, yours truly, or me?
Could my clone be me and I'd be she,
Our beings used interchangeably?
Would my thoughts be shared by my clone,
Would I never think on my own?
If my clone and I were placed on a shelf,
Would that mean I was beside myself?
If we all had clones would we find
There could never be one of a kind?
What of my need to be alone,
Is there no privacy with a clone?
If I were cloned like peas in a pod,
Would this confound and upset G-d?
My ego is such I want to be free
From ever knowing there's another like me.
[To read a fascinating and comprehensive essay all about Human Cloning and its implications for us today - from scientific, ethical and Jewish perspectives – Click Here.
Now I’m certainly no expert on cloning – sheep or human – but I do know a little something about the Torah, and I found a connection of sorts between cloning and the weekly Torah portion, Parshas Lech Lecha that I would like to share with you:
Towards the beginning of the Parshah the Torah tells us: “Abram took his wife Sarai and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their wealth that they had amassed, and the souls they made in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan†(Genesis 12:5) .
On the above verse, the Midrash Rabbah (39:14) comments:
Rabbi Elazar ben Zimra said: “If all the inhabitants of the world were to gather together so as to create even one gnat, they could not inject the breath of life into it, and yet you say: “the souls that they madeâ€?! Rather, these ‘souls’ are the proselytes that they had converted to faith in G-d. But if it is so that the verse speaks of idolaters whom they converted, why does it say that they ‘made' the souls? However, the explanation is that this is to teach you that anyone who brings an idolater close to G-d and converts him, it is as if he had created that person….â€
From this Midrash we can learn something very important about the “First Couple†of Judaism, Avraham and Sarah. When the Torah tells us that they “made†souls in Haran, it does not mean that they were wearing white lab coats in some laboratory in Mesopotamia and cloning humans or gnats (not that’s necessarily a bad idea if it can be done).
Rather their focus was on teaching all about G-d and His Torah to the masses and lovingly converting them to monotheism, thus “making†their souls, as religious converts acquire a new soul upon conversion. The many converts who acquired the true belief from Avraham and Sarah are whom the Torah refers to in our verse as “the souls that they made in Haranâ€.
This primary focus on teaching people about G-d and Torah, and building up their souls and their inner world, as opposed to developing the outer, physical world through science and technology, is the legacy handed down to us from Avraham and Sarah.
And while no one can question the many great contributions that Jews have given to the world in all areas of life including science and technology, especially in the last 200 years, indeed our greatest gift is in the spiritual realm, where we have “made†many souls throughout history by teaching people about Torah and monotheism and changing them and their inner world like no one else.
The following story, told by Rabbi Shimshon Pincus ZTâ€L, really brings this point home [excerpted from Torah.org]:
Many years ago, he had the opportunity to meet a granddaughter of the holy and revered Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohen ZTâ€L, known to all as the “Chafetz Chaimâ€. She had recently left Russia and was staying in an absorption center in the city of Beersheba. Unfortunately, she did not follow in her sainted grandfather’s footsteps and was completely irreligious. When she was 18 years old she ran away from home and went to university. “Some time later,†she told, “I went to my zeide, the Chafetz Chaim, and I said to him: ‘Zeide, why do you sit all day in the dark? There is a beautiful, radiant world waiting out there beyond the confines of your small shteibel (home). Powerful airplanes gracefully soar through the skies. How long must you sit in the darkness?’ This was at the beginning of the technological revolution that started during World War l. Airplanes were becoming commonplace, and the influence of the media was more powerful than it had ever been before.†“My grandfather, peering out the window, answered me patiently: ‘You see those airplanes of which you speak so lovingly? One day, those airplanes will drop bombs that can destroy the entire world. That is what they make with their technology. This is their enlightenment!'†“‘We make people. Do you hear? Mir machen mentschen – the Torah makes mentschen; that is our technology.'â€
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=535