To fulfill the mitzvah of pru u'rvu we pasken like r' yochanan that one has to leave the world with children, but if G-d forbid his children die during his lifetime, he does not fulfill the mitzvah. It is also clear from the braisa and paskened in shulchan aruch 1:5 that if one has a child who cannot have children i.e. s'ris or eiylonis, he did not fulfill the mitzvah since they are not capable of having offspring. However, the Beis Shmuel 1:8 writes that if one would have a boy and girl who are capable of having children, but decide not to have children (the example in the beis shmuel is where his daughter marries a sris, or son marries an eiylonis, but the chelkas michokeke says that the same is true if they decide not to marry at all), one would fulfill the mitzvah. Clearly, the poskim hold that if the father did all he can do, the fact that the children decide not to have children, would not take the mitzvah away from the father. The Pischei Teshuva quotes the sefer Bnei Ahuva (R' Yonasan Eibshitz) who considers a case where his daughter marries a s'ris to be tantamount to the daughter passing away, since it is impossible for her to leave the marriage and fulfill the mitzvah. Nevertheless, so long as the children still have the ability to have children, the father fulfills his mitzvah. R' Yakov Benzaquen (in our kollel) pointed out that based on this, if someone has a son and a daughter, and the daughter chooses not to get married, the father is still mekayem his mitzvah (as the chelkas michokek writes), but as the daughter gets older and due to her age no longer has the ability to have children, maybe the father should loose the mitzvah similar to a case where the daughter dies?
3 comments:
very interesting, practically speaking though, once the child is too old to have children - so is the father...
Not at all.
A father may have a daughter who is too old to have a child, but the father is still capable of having a child (even if he needs some medical assistance, it is easily available on the internet). Besides the fact that the Ramban on chumas parshas vayigash (46:15) comments that a man can give father a child even when he is very old. the miracle by avrohom fathering yitzchok is not that he was old, but rather that he was unable to conceive with sarah all these years. So, it is very likely that a father can have another child even though his daughter is too old to have another child.
The Minchat Chinuch clearly states that even if a person had a chilod who was originally able to conceive but later was not (thson became a petzua daka, R"L , one has not fulfilled the mitzvah. the truth is that the best way to speak about this mitzvah is in present tense. as the MC points out. the question is whether a person at any given point is "fulfilling" his mitzvah or not. one moment one is and the next one one is not!
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