The story of Noah includes one of the best known commandments in the Bible. God says to Noah “Be fruitful and multiply.” Gen 9:1. This is a repeat of the commandment given to Adam in Gen 1:28. While ...

Recently, at the New York Jewish Film Festival, I saw a movie called “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” It’s a portrait of four ultra-Orthodox women in Israel and Brooklyn, all talking about the joys and ...

I asked the former Anglican Archbishop of Burundi whether God’s statement to the first human beings, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” still applies. Burundi is one of the world’s ...

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has spent much of her career writing about Judaism. Her first book, Yentl’s Revenge (2001), is a collection that features young women writing about how they have reconciled ...

Molefe, 26, stretched her hand out to greet the old woman. Instead, Ingrid welcomed her with a hug. “God wants you to be here,” Ingrid reassured her. “Nobody comes here unless it was divinely ...

In this week’s parsha, Bamidbar, Moshe and Aaron, at Hashem’s command, conduct the tribal census. The outcome: 603,550 males between the age of 20 upwards who are fit to go out to the army, plus ...

Being fruitful and multiplying, after Rachel Krishevsky, of Jerusalem, who died at age 99, left behind some 1,400 direct descendents: 11 children, 150 grandchildren, 1,000 great-grandchildren, and a ...

The Biblical obligation to have a son and daughter. The rabbinic obligation to strive to have four children. The enhancement of the commandment to have as many children as the parents are able to.