IS OLD AGE A DISEASE?
abiding prestige as an eminent halakhist will ensure that future generations will continue to turn to his teshuvot for learning and instruction. And often students will indeed find that his responsa are crafted with unmistakable literary and rhetorical power.?® In this instance, however, that power is missing, and its absence is likely to limit the influence that these teshuvor will exercise over future discussions of the Halakhah of medical resource allocation.
In the meantime, we liberal halakhists can add our own insights to those discussions. At this juncture, we cannot identify a set of precise conclusions that command a consensus. That is not a fatal flaw, however, for, in truth, the process of“liberal Halakhah ’ values the asking of questions at least as much as the determination of answers. Ours is an approach that reflects a notion of Jewish law as a dynamic and developing phenomenon, one that finds its roots and draws its inspiration from the halakhic sources but that sees in those texts new possibilities and options of which others, who do not share our outlook, remain unaware.
What, then, are the questions and options that liberal halakhists would present for consideration? Given that the issue of medical resource allocation can be defined in several ways and analogized to several different sets of halakhic principles and texts, we would begin by asking whether Rabbi Feinstein’s definition of the issue is the best available interpretation of the principles of Jewish law as we understand them. Although he asserts that the principle of equality of persons determines our answer to this she’elah, he neither adequately justifies this assertion nor explains why other competing principles ought not be favored.