Mark Washofs

Second, R. Ya'akov Ettlinger is not the only halakhist to apply the“captive infant” metaphor to the non-observant Jews of modernity. On the contrary: whether due to the precedential influence of Ettlinger’s ruling or due to their direct reliance upon Maimonides ’ position toward the Karaites , a number of other 19"- and 20"-century poskim invoke the metaphor as well. R. David Zvi Hoffmann(d. 1921) cites Ettlinger’s ruling to support a decision allowing an Orthodox congregation to count Shabbat violators in its minyan.” Hoffmann, of course, was a noted academic scholar and the rector of the Hildesheimer rabbinical seminary in Berlin ; he displayed “modernist” Orthodox leanings, and his responsa are known for their tendency toward leniency and accommodation to social change. Yet Ettlinger’s pesak is cited approvingly by such authorities as R. Haim Yitzhak Medini of Jerusalem (d. 1906), who was hardly a“modern” Orthodox figure.* R. Shalom Mordekhai Schwadron(d. 1911), an eminent Galician authority not normally associated with sympathy toward the Enlightenment , writes that the children of Shabbat violators are“like infants held captive among the Gentiles, much as Rambam describes the Karaites ”; therefore, the son of one of the public sinners should be circumcised even on the Sabbath , should that be the eighth day of the child’s life.* R. Avraham Bornstein( 1910) writes that“so long as a non-observant Jew can be compared to a tinok shenishbah, he is not a mumar.”® R. Yitzchak Ya’ akov Weiss(d. 1989), who served for many years as the chief halakhic authority for the eidah haredit(the“ultra-Orthodox ” community) in Jerusalem , cites the tinok shenishbah metaphor, which he attributes to“the outstanding sages of recent times”(gedolei ha’aharonim), 10 permit an Orthodox yeshivah to accept donations from those who violate Shabbat in public.®® Another leading contemporary Orthodox halakhist, R. Ovadyah Yosef, cites Ettlinger’s argument as one ofa number of reasons to permit a non-observant kohen(one of priestly descent) to recite the priestly benediction for the community.* One 19*century posek reportedly declared that the“Jews of America”(al of them, it would seem) fall into the category of tinok shenishbah and