MARK WASHOVSKY

ethical principles evoked by Talmudic authorities when calling upon individuals to go beyond the letter of the law and guide their conduct by a higher moral standard. The material is presented not as history but as hiddushim, novellae in the familiar yeshiva style. Berkovits cites historical examples, but his point is not merely to show that the rabbis have from time to time issued"progressive" rulings. The examples illustrate the underlying rules and principles, defining the extent to which the rabbis are empowered to depart from the traditional understandings of Jewish law.” Cases of rabbinic"liberality" are not coincidental. They are evidence of principles embedded in the fabric of halakhah which guide rabbinic decisions in concrete situations.

An example of such principles at work, to which Berkovits devotes considerable attention, lies in the area of marital law. Although normally a husband must issue a divorce of his own free will, in certain cases his consent may be obtained through coercion. In Ketubot 63a-b, we read of the wife who denies conjugal rights to her husband on the claim that he is repulsive to her(mais alai). Some authorities, notably Maimonides and Rashi, hold that this husband may be coerced into issuing a divorce. If the halakhah follows them, then the legal position of the wife, who cannot under Toraitic law divorce her husband, is dramatically improved. By moving out of the marital home and claiming"mais alai", she would set into motion a chain of events which would lead inexorably to her freedom to remarry. Especially in Israel , where government coercion may be employed against a husband who refuses to issue a get at the order of a rabbinic court, a remedy would exist for women who currently suffer as agunot because of the recalcitrance of their husbands. While most authorities reject the use of coercion in this instance, Berkovits concludes that"there is no solid Talmudic evidence against the position of Rashi and Rambam ." 18 Since our ethical sense forbids us to force a woman to remain with a husband whom she detests, the rabbinic court may coerce the divorce if

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