Narratives of Enlightenment 129
How might these criteria apply to our present subject? The first thing we would do is to ask what a given example of halakhic writing, in this case the ruling of R. Ya'akov Ettlinger, does with the language of halakhic discourse in which it functions. I would suggest that Ettlinger’s teshuvah does meet White’s definition of a“good” opinion because it offers a case study in the full range of rhetorical mastery; as an“artist,” that is, White turns in a halakhic performance clearly worthy of the reader’s respect. I say this because his opinion is simultaneously a radical hidush, a transformation of the received texts into new patterns of meaning, and yet profoundly conservative. On the radical side, Ettlinger creates a new definition of the mehalel Shabbat befarhesya that spares the masses of well-meaning but nonobservant Jews from the taint of apostasy. Compared to this breathtaking departure from halakhic precedent, the resort to the tinok shenishbah metaphor is the essence of moderation, given that Maimonides ef al. have used the same metaphor for the same purpose for many centuries. The conservatism of the responsum displays itself in its careful laying-out of the opposing position, that of R. Shemaryahu Zuickerman. Ettlinger in fact concedes that his correspondent’s more stringent view has much to recommend it; he does not dismiss it out of hand but rather takes pains to preserve the “other voice” within the collective halakhic discourse. His teshuvah models therefore the sort of respectful dialogue that is the hallmark of healthy legal argument. To the extent that students of halakhah value vigorous, healthy argument and open discussion,” they can regard this decision as a“good” one even though they may disagree with the substance of his ruling.
As for the question of narrative, we should remember that the stories Orthodox rabbis choose to tell about their non-observant brethren reveal just as much about their conception of themselves as a community. Ettlinger’s opponents refuse to apply the designation tinok shenishbah in the contemporary social reality. The story they tell, therefore, is the classic Talmudic tale of heresy: the