MARK WASHOVSKY
pronouncements with regard to Jewish law issued by those who have placed themselves outside the pale of normative Judaism " (emphasis added).
31. Emanuel Feldman ,"Trends in the American Yeshivot: A Rejoinder", in R. Bulka, ed., Dimensions of Orthodox Judaism, New York , 1983, p. 334. This point suggests caution in attempting to explain halakhah, which is definitely not a"modern legal system", according to jurisprudential theories designed with such systems in
mind.
32. Even a modern Orthodox critic of the gedolim bows to their halakhic authority; see Oscar Z. Fasman in Bulka, pp. 317-330.
33. See Menachem Elon in I. Eisner, ed., Hagut Vehalakha, Jerusalem , 1973, pp. 75-119. At the conclusion of his historical survey, Elon suggests that the needs of the hour require a new codification of Jewish law, thus drawing a very different lesson from halakhic history than does Roth. On the powerful tendencies among Sefardic and Oriental rabbis toward adherence to precedent and the virtual sanctification of the Mishneh Torah and the Shulhan Arukh in their legal practice, see Y. Z. Kahana, Mehkarim Besifrut Hateshuvot Jerusalam, 1973), pp. 8-88; Elon, Hamishpat Haivri, pp. 1139- 1144; and R. Ovadyah Yosef in Sefer Hayovel Lerav Yosef Dov Halevy Soloveitchik, Jerusalem , 1984, pp. 267-280.
35. See David M. Feldman, Marital Relations, Birth Control and Abortion in Jewish Law New York , 1975, pp. 268-294.
36. Responsa Igrot Mosheh, Hoshen Mishpat II, n. 69. The sources