Be Fruitful and Multiply and Fill the Earth: Until When?

By Rabbi Yonatan Neril

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 poorest countries, and has a high birth rate, a low rate of family planning, and a deeply religious population. In a country of 11.5 million people, a million have already fled food scarcity, violence, and political unrest. The Archbishop replied that the people in Burundi no longer need to be fruitful and multiply, since the land can barely sustain them. I found his response eye-opening since he’s a senior religious figure on the African continent, where religion tends to be deeply conservative.