During the past decade, writes Rafi Eis, Modern Orthodox leaders, rabbis, and intellectuals have shied away from making a robust defense of the biblical and talmudic positions on marriage and homosexuality. Thus, while admirably seeking to balance adherence to halakhah with compassion, they have nevertheless ceded too much ground to the views of the culture at large. Eis contends that it is necessary to root the Orthodox position not just in legal principles, but also in the ideas and values they embody. To show how to do so, he begins with the account of mankind in the first two chapters of the Torah:

Whereas human beings are told in Genesis 1 to conquer and harness nature, in Genesis 2, they are instructed “to work and to guard” the Garden of Eden. They must ensure that in their creative process they build rather than ruin. The unfettered procreation implied in Genesis 1 [by the injunction to “be fruitful and multiply”] is similarly modified. Populating the whole earth is not merely a question of numbers. Human children require care to grow, but also training to be successful.

We are therefore “obligated to marry in order to procreate,” [in the words of the 16th-century sage Joseph Karo], since the unity of procreation and education in marriage is the building block of civilization. Citing the verse “It is not good for man to be alone,” as Jewish LGBTQ advocates do, misreads the biblical verse. Spousal companionship is an essential part of “being fruitful and multiplying.” It is the framework by which society ensures that children are raised best. It is true that “any man who does not have a wife is left without joy, without blessing, without goodness,” [as the Talmud puts it], but the controlling obligation is procreation. Marriages whose sole purpose is companionship are recommended for those that already have been blessed with children. The verse cannot be used to redefine what marriage is.

The Torah places these stories at the very beginning to tell us that this is what is most essential about life. We must consciously and thoughtfully build this world that God has given us. Our parents, through an act of kindness, give us life, which we do nothing to earn. In this way, they imitate God who created the world and life therein. Unlike the modern notion that believes that life is primarily about self-fulfillment, the Torah unequivocally states that we are bound to perpetuate life and build civilization.

While I’ve seen much speculation—some reasonable and well informed, some quite the opposite—about why Jerusalem chose Friday morning to begin its campaign against Iran, the most obvious explanation seems to be the most convincing. First, 60 days had passed since President Trump warned that Tehran had 60 days to reach an agreement with the U.S. over its nuclear program. Second, Israeli intelligence was convinced that Iran was too close to developing nuclear weapons to delay military action any longer. Edward Luttwak explains why Israel was wise to attack:

Iran was adding more and more centrifuges in increasingly vast facilities at enormous expense, which made no sense at all if the aim was to generate energy. . . . It might be hoped that Israel’s own nuclear weapons could deter an Iranian nuclear attack against its own territory. But a nuclear Iran would dominate the entire Middle East, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, with which Israel has full diplomatic relations, as well as Saudi Arabia with which Israel hopes to have full relations in the near future.

Luttwak also considers the military feats the IDF and Mossad have accomplished in the past few days:

To reach all [its] targets, Israel had to deal with the range-payload problem that its air force first overcame in 1967, when it destroyed the air forces of three Arab states in a single day. . . . This time, too, impossible solutions were found for the range problem, including the use of 65-year-old airliners converted into tankers (Boeing is years later in delivering its own). To be able to use its short-range F-16s, Israel developed the “Rampage” air-launched missile, which flies upward on a ballistic trajectory, gaining range by gliding down to the target. That should make accuracy impossible—but once again, Israeli developers overcame the odds.