“Be Fruitful and Multiply” and Adoption

Question

Does one who fails to conceive children naturally, despite their best attempts, fulfill the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply if they adopt children and raise a family of one or more adopted children?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    In his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Shlomo Kluger presents a viewpoint that one can in fact fulfill the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiply by raising a boy and a girl who are not one’s biological children. This is based on the Talmudic statement: “One who raises his neighbor’s child is as if he gave birth to him.” (Shulchan Aruch Even Haezer 1 and Chochmat Shlomo)

    As a fascinating aside, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein writes in Iggrot Moshe Even HaEzer 2:18 that the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying is “to try to have children.” He reasons that the Torah would not obligate a person to actually have children since that is something out of a person’s control.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team