The new Freehof Institute of Progressive halakhah will
provide us with a forum for a better philosophical basis for the development of Liberal halakhah. Equally important is an analysis of what has been done thus far through responsa and various handbooks. Those efforts will continue to have a practical impact on Reform Jewish life and on our constituents in many lands. Even while we encourage philosophical and theological speculation we must similarly emphasize our practical efforts. There will be no halakhah without responsa. The very writing of the responsa indicates that we are continuing as a halakhic movement whether the philosophical basis is absolutely clear or not. This paper will review the early years of American Reform responsa.
Strange as it may sound to some the Reform movement virtually began with responsa. Just eight years after Israel Jacobson dedicated his Reform temple in Seesen, ' and only a year after the establishment of the larger Temple in Hamburg,? a collection of Reform responsa entitled Nogah Hatzedek was published in Dessau (1818). The authors represented in this slim volume, Joseph Hayim, Ben Sasson , Jacob Recanati, Aaron Chorin and Eliezer Lieberman each defended the new movement in the traditional fashion. These responsa in Hebrew with their classic citations and traditional discursive style were not addressed to the new Liberal Jews who sought to establish the Reform movement but to their Orthodox opponents. They sought to convince the traditionalists that the new movement was tied to tradition and possessed standing in it. In keeping with the literary style of the early nineteenth century responsa literature these pieces are flowery, rhetorical and cited quotations that were helpful as well as other which were only minimally useful. Both the language of responsa and the style used