MARK WASHOVSKY

2. Effraim Urbach,"Al Hachayat Ha-Halakha", Publication of The Movement for Torah Judaism , 2, Jerusalem 1968; reprinted in Al Tziyonut Veyahadut, Jerusalem , 1985, pp. 311-321. See also "Samkhut Ha-Halakha Biyameinu", Al Tziyonut, p. 330.

3. Perhaps to this list should be added the name of Haim David Halevy, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo , who has some interesting things to say about the"flexibility" of the halakhah to arrive at new answers to contemporary problems; Aseh Lekha Rav, 7, Tel Aviv ,

1986, n. 54.

4. Peter J. Haas ,"Responsa Reconsidered," Journal of Reform Judaism, XXX , 1983, p. 41.

5. Menachem Elon points to the loss of Jewish juridical autonomy at the beginning of the Emancipation period as the primary factor in Jewish law’s loss of vitality; see Hamishpat Haivri, Jerusalem , 1978, pp. 73-74. Solomon B. Freehof traces Orthodox stringency to a reaction against widespread non-observance of ritual and civil law; see Reform Responsa, Cincinnati, 1960, pp. 3-12.

6. Louis Jacobs , A Tree of Life, Oxford, 1984.

7. See, for example, Robert Gordis ,"A Dynamic Halakhah: Principles and Procedures of Jewish Law," Judaism 28, 1979, pp. 263-282, who cites the prosbul, the heter iska, and the takanot of Rabbenu Gershom among other examples.

8. An assumption which Gordis , p. 264, makes explicit.

9. Jacobs version of that agenda(p.247): Women’s rights, relations with non-Jews , issues concerning life in a technological society, the needs of the state of Israel .

46