A Blessed Family

Question

Dear Rabbi,

My friend has six lovely children. I’m not jealous but shouldn’t we be concerned about overpopulation? What about depletion of the natural resources of “Mother Earth”? Your thoughts please,Rabbi?

Thank you.

 

0

Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    What do you call a family with four or more children? A “large family”? A “family with a lot of kids”? “A chaotic family”? Well, In Israel a family of four children or more has a special name: “a family blessed with children.” All children are a blessing. And the more children, the more blessing.

    Regarding overpopulation concerns there is “use” and there is “abuse.” Adam and Even were given permission to use and enjoy virtually all the “fruits” in the Garden of Eden. The beauty and the wonders of the Creation were theirs to use as they desired. However, they were also given limitations and told to “guard” the world (Genesis 2:15).

    God did not create the world to be empty of people, and even encouraged people to populate it. The first command given to mankind was to “to be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). This is a call to have children and populate the world. What you heard about two children is the minimum (a boy and a girl), so as to continue the existence of our species with both genders being born in every generation. However, besides this command, there is a teaching from the Prophet to populate the world beyond this minimum: “He created it not to be a waste; rather He formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18).

    True, some people refrain from marriage and having children for global considerations, to alleviate the earth’s over-burdened resources or to reduce world hunger and the like. While these are noble concerns, they don’t preclude family life. First, a lot can be done to improve personal and global consumption besides being barren. One can consume less and have children. A creatively modest lifestyle could permit having children without adding significant demand on resources. In addition, there is really no direct correlation between one person’s ability to feed his children and another person’s not. One can give more of his income to hungry children while feeding his own. Last, a Jew in particular should avoid being too concerned of an overpopulation problem. Relatively speaking, Jews are but a tiny fraction of the world population. In addition, six million Jews were murdered not that long ago during the Holocaust. There is no reason for us to further reduce our number willingly.

    All the past predictions of overpopulation and global disasters due to over-consumption have been false. The key to success in the future is to wisely use the resources of the world to our benefit without abusing the world and destroying it in any way. We rely on the ongoing involvement of Creator with the world, together with our hopefully responsible measures to avoid destructive behavior, to allow us to enjoy what the world has to offer us whatever our number of children and family size.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team