Single Women Who Want to Have a Baby
Rabbi Cherlow is Rosh Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva of Petach Tikva. He wrote the following two responsa, which appeared in Hebrew on his Yeshiva’s website ypt.co.il. He has given permission to the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals to have the responsa translated and published in English. The following translation is by Bentsi Cohen. Rabbi Cherlow has written: “I received a great many responses to this article. The large majority touched on the question whether it was at all appropriate to publicize my position on this issue, or should such topics be dealt with privately out of concern for the 'slippery slope'. My position on this is found in the articles themselves. I think it proper to very much narrow the gap between those things discussed in extreme privacy and those which are discussed openly in public as a halakhic stand. Only a minority of those who disagreed with me disagreed on the contents of what I wrote.”
Question to Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, Rosh Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva of Petach Tikva:
I ask you to bravely write an answer to a question that has been disturbing me very much for quite some time. I am a thirty-six years old woman, rather pretty, educated and well taken care of, who has been attempting for over fifteen years to get married, but to no avail… Read more
The Torah and the Natural Way of the World
Rabbi Cherlow is Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshivat Hesder of Petah Tikva. He is a founding board member of the rabbinic group, Tzohar, and a member of various committees and organizations dealing with Jewish law and ethics. He is the author of numerous books and articles. This article appears in issue 3 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
The Torah opens with the account of the creation of the universe and human beings; the early generations of humanity; the lives of the Patriarchs, Matriarchs, and their children; the slavery in Egypt and the redemption from it—all of this long before the giving of the Torah. The Master of the Universe did not begin the Torah with “I am the Lord your God” and with the giving of the Ten Commandments, but rather with the story of creation—the deeds of human beings and the way the world operated before the Torah was given. The world functioned in its natural glory even before the giving of the Torah. Read more