The universalist precept, mipnei darkhei shalom(for the sake of peace), was construed to include the obligation of visiting the sick of the gentiles, burying their dead and comforting their mourners.”
Another example of progress through creative halakhic action is R. Yehudah Hanassi’s downgrading the sabbatical year from a Scriptural to a rabbinic commandment(midoraita lederabanan) which enabled agricultural work during the seventh year and thereby saved many from starvation.*
Proceeding to the Middle Ages, we might learn from Rabbi Moses Isserles(Ramah) who applied the Talmudic humanitarian principles of kevod habriot(human dignity)” and shaat hadehak (the necessity to act in an emergency situation)? to the problem of an orphan bride who was ready to enter the hupah in his Krakow synagogue on a Friday afternoon four hundred years ago. The families could not agree on the nedunyah(dowry) until after sunset and well into the Sabbath . Isserles was afraid that if he waited until after the Shabbat the shiddukh would irreparably fall apart and the orphaned bride would forever be shamed, so he married the couple in his synagogue on the Shabbat . The Rama explained that his action was prompted by this shaat hadehak- irreversible emergency situation- and the danger of injury to the human dignity of the unfortunate young lady.”
Many orthodox and non-orthodox scholars have searched rabbinic literature for similar principles to show the viable and vital character of the halakhah which enables it to adjust to changing times and conditions.*® Many poskim in the distant past and even in recent generations were able to resolve difficult problems by exercising the flexibility and dynamism of the halakhah.
Indeed, this was the situation in the past. Notwithstanding this halakhic flexibility, our generation is still confronted with the
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