Innovation and Authority 27
group legal polemics—both the defenders of the women graciously adducing permissions and their censorious opponents the notion of a halakhic
amassing prohibitions and stringencies vacuum in which women are free of any authority but their own seems the most intolerable possibility of all.
Notes
I. Abba Bronspiegel,‘Minyan Mehuhadim le’'Nashim,” Hadarom 54(Sivan 5745), 51-53.
Zvi Schachter,“Ze'i Lakh B’lquei Ha-Zon,” Bet Yitzhak 17(5745) 118-134.
For example, David Singer,“A Failure of halakhic‘Objectivity,”” Sh'ma 15 (May 17, 1985), 110; and Michael Chernick,“In Support of Women's Prayer Groups,” Sh’ma 15(May 17, 1985), 105
4. The literature on this point is too extensive to cite. For a sampling of differ
w No
ing contemporary perspectives on the issue see: Aaron Lichtenstein ,“Does Jewish Tradition Recognize an Ethic Independent of Halakhah?” in Contemporary Jewish Ethics. Menachem Mark Kellner, ed., New York , 1978, 112123. Shubert Spero , Morality, Halakhah and the Jewish Tradition New York , 1983, Chapter 6. Yeshayahu Leibowitz ,“The Religious and Moral Significance of the Redemption of Israel” in Contemporary Jewish Theology, Elliot N. Dorff and Louis E. Newman, eds., Oxford, 1999, 453-464. Eliezer Berkovits , Not in Heaven: The Nature and Function of Halakhah, New York , 1983, 19.
See Menachem Elon ,“Minhag” in Menachem Elon , ed. The Principles of Jew
ut
ish Law, Jerusalem , 1975, 91-110. For discussions by liberal halakhists see Elliot N. Dorff and Arthur Rosett, A Living Tree: The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law, Albany, 1988, 421-434 and Louis Jacobs , A Tree of I ife: Diversity, Flexibility and Creativity in Jewish Law, Oxford, 1984, 221-235.
For an early example involving women, see b. Berakhot 31a, where a custom concerning extra-menstrual spotting attributed to“the daughters of Israel ” is cited as an example of halakhah pesukah.
Abraham Weiss , Women at Prayer: A Halakhic Analysis of Women’s Prayer Groups Hoboken, NJ , 1990.
8. Singer, Op. Cit., 110 and Chernick, Op. Cit., 105.
N
Although agreement among feminists about the importance of narrative is widespread, some feminists characterize women’s decision-making as narratively based and oppose this to legal rule making See Carol Gilligan , In a Different Voice Cambridge , MA , 1982, 24-63. I base my own work on that of Robert Cover , who argued that all law is narratively based. Robert M. Cover ,“The Supreme Court 1986 Term: Forward: Nomos and Narrative,” Harvard Law Review 97, no. 4(November, 1983): 4-68.