Baba Basra 60b - Decree to Abstain From Pru U'rvu

R' Yishmael Ben Elisha said that from the day that the Roman government started to make decrees against keeping Torah and mitzvos it would have been appropriate to make a decree taht everyone should abstain from having children (better we cease to exist rather than they destroy us through assimilation), but we can't impose a gezeira that most people cannot withstand.

This gemara is very difficult because it seems to go against the grain of our hashkafa. We should leave Hashem's business in his hands but we must carry on and fulfill our obligations. There are 4 approaches to this gemara:

1. Tosafos are troubled, how can we abolish the mitzvah of p'ru u'rvu? Tosafos answers that of course people would have still been performing the bare minimum of the mitzvah to have a son and daughter, but at that point they would abstain. The issue of זרעו של אברהם כלה is that klal yisroel won't grow because parents would replace themselves by having one son and one daughter.

2. The Chasam Sofer points out that the Mordechai in Yevamos understands this gemara as it sounds, that they would completely abstain from having children. The Mordechai (cited by Beis Shmuel siman 1) holds that nowadays we don't force a man to divorce his wife in order to fulfill his mitzvah of p'ru u'rvu since anyway there should have been a gezeira against having children. The Mordechai seems to hold that one way or the other klal yisroel would be lost. They would either be lost spiritually through bitul of torah and mitzvos leading to assimilation, or they would be lost physically through bitul p'ru u'rvi. It would be better that they end their existence on a high spiritual level, rather than a low.

3. However, the Chasam Sofer himself has a novel approach. It is impossible for the Jews to cease to exist because Hashem had promised to never destroy the Jews. The idea was that when they saw the goyim decreeing against Torah and Mitzvos and they watched the Jewish people dwindle spiritually, the plan was to decree against marriage so that divine intervention would be invoked sooner to save the existence of klal yisroel. The reason that they didn't do this is because there would be resha'im who would not pay attention to the gezeira and continue to have children, which would allow for the continuation of the Jews on at least a minimal level, thereby preventing divine intervention.

4. It is worthwhile to point out that the Meiri seems to have a different version of the gemara. According to our version which ends with the statement - מוטב שיהיו שוגגין ואל יהיו מזידין, the implication is that if the gezeira would be followed, then it would be ideal to implement it. However, the Meiri ends by quoting the statement that Yeshaya told Chizkiya in Brachos - בהדי כבשי דרחמנא למה לך. Meaning, Hashem will deal with his business but we must do whatever we are obligated and able to do. Therefore, the conclusion of the gemara is that the suggestion is ideologically flawed, not just impossible to practically implement.