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from the father’s jurisdiction though he should not be put
up for adoption [against the parents’ wishes] but given to
foster parents and only for a specific time period.
Halachic Concerns in Regard to Adoption
We shall now present some of the halachic problems that arise be-
tween parents and their adopted children, as listed by the sefer Mekor
Behalachah by (Rav A. Breezel, 26) as follows:
“Now, this practice of adopting unfortunate children at birth is not
some new invention whose law was obscure. The passuk in Megillas
Esther (2:7) says explicitly,‘And he raised Hadassah, she is Esther, his
uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother.’ The gemara in
Megillah (13a) says, ‘Rabbi Acha said, “When she [i.e. Esther’s moth-
er] conceived her, her father died; when she gave birth to her, her
mother died.” “Mordechai took her to himself l’bas, (as a daughter)”
(Esther ibid.) – The tanna [said], citing Rabbi Meir,“Do not read this
‘l’bas, as a daughter’ but l’bayis (as his home i.e. he married her).”’
“Behold, how great is the reward of a person who adopts an un-
fortunate child, raising him to follow the path of Torah and mitzvos
– his reward is very great but he must be extremely careful not to chas
veshalom stumble in regard to most serious prohibitions.
“People who take the son or daughter of other parents into their
home and care for them like a father raising his own child and like
a mother raising her own child – which is known today as child
adoption – even if the adoptive parents receive the child on the
day they are born, when the child reaches age at which the prohi-
bition of yichud (seclusion with a member of the opposite gender)
is applicable i.e. when a girl reaches the age of three and when a boy
reaches the age of nine , this prohibition comes into force in regard
to the adoptive parents. The fact that they have raised the child in
their home since his birth not only doesn’t diminish the prohibition,
Removing a Child from the Parents’ Custody 2 237
