PETER KNOBEL

commanded by God . Since it is commanded by God its obedience is obligatory. The halakhah is ideally a crystallization of Jewish ethics. However, we Reform Jews have rejected the authority of the halakhah, in part because we deny its divine origin, and in part because as a system it has failed to respond adequately to modernity, the Enlightenment , and emancipation, and the rapid changes brought about by the technological revolution. We have frequently offered a moral critique of the halakhah. Its treatment of women is a prime example. In addition the Shoah(the Holocaust ) and the rebirth of the state of Israel, have put strains on the traditional halakhic system. One reason for stagnation in the halakhic process is that the halakhah is a legal system lacking a legislative process.

A way to renew the halakhic process within a liberal context must begin by an explicit delineation of the methodological assumptions which undergird our work. David Ellenson ’s identification of "covenantal ethics" is a productive starting point. This method also cuts across denominational lines. Eugene Borowitz , a major Reform theologian, and Yitz Greenberg , a liberal Orthodox thinker , and Rabbi Daniel Gordis , a professor at the University of Judaism(Conservative ), have made beginnings at spelling out this method. Among the principles which define this method are the following: One begins by examining Jewish texts to discover what it means to be human and the nature of humankind’s relationship to God . Gordis calls this a theological anthropology. Humankind is both created in the image of God and serves as God ’s partner in the ongoing work of creation. This relationship of partnership is called brit or covenant and it entails obligations(mitzvor). The covenant is a loving relationship which may be described using the language of marriage. In such a loving relationship human freedom is not overwhelmed by divine will. Such a relationship is characterized by mutuality and respect for the integrity of each partner.” It is the dialogue and dialectic of the relationship which enables a person to become more fully human by recognizing the absolute worth of his/her personhood because it is in the image of the divine. In this model the

31