"Each One an Entire World"

This chapter begins the discussion with Jewish ethical and religious perspectives on reproductive health, ethics, and family planning policy. It argues that to fully reflect on Jewish perspectives on reproductive health and ethics, one must have a clear understanding of both history and text. A Jewish contribution to the debate on family planning is based on both what is written and what is performed. In reflecting on Jewish ethics, one considers the whole of human activity and the whole of community as well: women as well as men are moral agents, and the lifeworld of the family, of women, and of children, is a central concern of religion. This discourse is primarily contained in the extensive literature of debate and exegesis of the rabbinic literature, which is primarily collected in a set of volumes called the Talmud.