THE SEARCH FOR LIBERAL HALAKHAH

he would insure that Jewish law would always conform to liberal values. The premium he pays for this insurance is the abandonment of the traditional legal system. His solution is of little help to liberal halakhists who seek to prove that justice and compassion can be achieved within the traditional halakhah.”

If the method of history cannot, on its own, establish a theory of liberal halakhah, the"analytical" approach offers a more promising solution. This approach characterizes the work of Eliezer Berkovits in Hahalakhah: Kohah Vetafkidah.'® This is an analytical study concentrates not upon what rabbinic authorities have done in the past but upon the rules of the rabbinic legal process. Granted that changes have taken place, just what is it that makes these changes legitimate from a normative point of view? The analyst undertakes a"dogmatic" study of the law to determine the immanent procedures by which the particular legal system justifies its rulings.

Thus Berkovits , like Jacobs a halakhist as well as a theologian, does not follow Jacobs in drawing conclusions on the basis of historical circumstance. He also does not advocate a new, "non-fundamentalist" halakhah. The traditional halakhah is fully capable of securing justice and progress. As the eternal bridge upon which Torah traverses from abstract ideal to the concrete world of reality, halakhah can by its nature respond to the changing conditions of Jewish existence. This generation has experienced a more rapid rate of change than any other since the destruction of the Temple. Our time requires halakhic solutions to problems in all areas of religious and social life. It is imperative to show how this task can be accomplished within the traditional halakhic framework. In his first chapter, Berkovits argues that rabbinic law shows a marked preference for reason over arbitrary authority. He proceeds to discuss the principles by which the theoretical halakhah has made significant adjustments in light of metsiut, the realities of human nature and existence. There follows a consideration of the

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