Reform Judaism and Same-Sex Marriag 173

in Jewish religious practice by recognizing the validity of civil divorce, they justified this change by using halakhic language. They explained their action, however revolutionary it seemed, not as a revolution at all but as a move fully consistent with the theory and rhetorical style of the Rabbinic legal tradition.

In the passage above, Professor Washofsky has described clearly what is at stake. It is the nature and method of Reform decision making. Decisors using the same method may, how­ever, come to different conclusions. It is the responsibility of those who wish to introduce new understandings or new prac­tices to do so from within rather than outside the vocabulary and style of halakhic decision making. The CCAR Responsa Com­mittee has produced a masterful document“On Homosexual Marriage 5756.8,” which says:“ A Reform Rabbi should not offi­ciate at a ceremony of marriage between two persons of the same gender, whether or not this ceremony is called by the name kid­dushin.” A minority of the committee disagreed and said“A Reform rabbi may officiate at a wedding or commitment cere­mony for two homosexuals, although for important historical and theological reasons that ceremony should perhaps not be called kiddushin.”"* The responsum makes clear that same sex marriage is a complex and difficult issue. It tells the reader at the outset:“We discovered we were No longer talking to or even arguing with each other, rather we were conducting a series of parallel monologues in place of the dialogue that has served us so well in the past one.”"

Before proceeding to the substance of my argument, it seems important to delineate the principle within halakhah itself that grants the posek authority to make changes and the warrants for

those changes.

in his comprehensive work on Jewish law, mporary decisors to deter­

Menachem Elon, writes about the authority of conte mine the law in a different manner from the past

Thus was established and accepted the fundamental princi­ish law: The law is in accordance

ple of decision making in Jew ties. It should not be thought

with the view of the later authori that this principle diminished in any way the respect fous ge

; i. is erations accorded to earlier generations. It was precisely

respect that induced the later authority responsible for declaring