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From: peter@unm-la.UUCP (bill peter)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Second class on Jewish parenting
Message-ID: <354@unm-la.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Feb-86 01:01:51 EST
Article-I.D.: unm-la.354
Posted: Sun Feb 23 01:01:51 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 08:41:30 EST
References: <1354@tekgvs.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Los Alamos
Lines: 27

> They then went on to discuss the pidyon ha-ben ceremony.  It turns out that
> this ceremony only applies to first-born sons (no previous miscarriages) that
> have been delivered naturally.  Rabbi Fuhrman than said that he feels that
> this rule puts more feelings of inadequacy on the mother who may have been
> feeling inadequate because of having a c-section,

As far as I can tell, all the traditional and modern orthodox Jewish
communities I have lived in (Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and Chicago) have a
pidyon ha'ben ceremony for all first-born males, whether or not they were
born by c-section.

I am assuming the difficulty lies with the phrase in the Torah "kadesh li
kol b'chor PETTER KOL RECHEM [those who split the womb]"...maybe the strict
legalists view c-sections as not quite fulfilling this criterion, but babies
born from c-sections leave the womb just as naturally as those exiting
between the legs.

It would be interesting to hear of any *substantive* halachic references
on this point, since many Jewish communities around the world, both
Ashkenazic and Sephardic, seem to go by a more sensible interpretation
of this commandment.
--

bill peter                                       ihnp4!lanl!wkp

"And everything under the sun is in tune,
 But the sun is eclipsed by the moon..."  --Pink Floyd