AUTHORITY AND CRITERIA IN LIBERAL HALAKHAH
and to embody them in the life of the people...""° This concept of change and development may serve as a guideline for the modern Jew in judging those mitzvot that developed with the changing times and are therefore relevant to our day. This criterion would put aside commandments such as halitzah which might have had some relevancy in the distant past, but have no spiritual meaning, even if reinterpreted, for the modern Jew.
2. The halakhah is pluralistic
A corollary of the developmental aspect of the halakhah is its pluralist character. Historical research proves that Jewish law was diverse in character and certainly far from monolithic. In the controversy between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai on forbidden marriages, the two Houses did not refrain from marrying one another, even though such marriages might be forbidden according to the halakhic decision of either." Yitzhak Gilat, professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan University , points out that in spite of the great differences between the Houses, they came to the recognition that "both are the words of the living God, "* and that everyone could act according to either view:"Whoever wishes to conduct himself according to Beit Shammai- may do so, and according to Beit Hillelmay do so."
This freedom of halakhic ruling was accepted in practice during the time of the Second Temple; Professor Gilat claims: "Every sage was permitted to render decisions in his town and home according to his own tradition and in consonance with his judgement arising from deliberations in the rabbinic sources." We may therefore conclude that we have here a firmly based principle for pesikah: Since pluralism has been an intrinsic characteristic of Jewish religious life, one can legitimately choose the practices of any accepted Jewish religious tradition, including those of the nonOrthodoxy.
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