AUTHORITY AND CRITERIA IN LIBERAL HALAKHAH

Jacobs propounds that"revelation must be understood as a far more complicated and complex process of divine-human encounter and interaction and quite differently from the idea of direct divine communication of infallible laws and propositions, upon which the traditional theory of the halakhah depends."

A progressive halakhah must therefore be founded on such a reinterpretation of revelation. Of course, this theological-halakhic position is unacceptable to the Orthodox rabbinate, because it has far reaching ramifications for the authority of the traditional halakhah. As Jacobs contends, for the non-Orthodox Jew ,"the ultimate authority for determining which observances are binding upon the faithful Jew is the historical experience of the people of Israel , since, historically perceived, this is ultimately the sanction of the halakhah itself."

We must therefore conclude that a serious Progressive Jew accepts or rejects the content of tradition, not out of convenience or caprice, but rather from a liberal theological Weltanschauung on revelation, history and halakhah.

If this be the source of Liberal Jewish authority, then what are the criteria and principles that enable the non-Orthodox Jew to choose mitzvot and halakhot that are valid and meaningful in the framework of Progressive halakhah?

IL. Principles and Criteria of Liberal Halakhah

Our theological position on the authority of the halakhah together with sensitivity to the ethical, to inner spirituality and to social justice are determining factors in the application of a particular mitzvah to a specific case. Some of the foremost thinkers of this century have presented us with criteria of the observance of mitzvot by the non-fundamentalist Jew which are essential to the

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