MARK WASHOFSKY

demands that he do so. The minhag followed in all communities®’ denies this option to the priest and to the congregation. Faced with a clear conflict between theoretical law and actual practice, Karo presumes that the minhag cannot be false. His purpose is not to refute the opinion of the preponderance of rabbinic scholars but rather to incorporate the widespread minhag into the system of Jewish legal thought. The justification he offers the minhag does not mean that it accords with the plain sense of the Talmud ; it most probably does not. It serves instead to legitimize the practice in halakhic terms, so that, regardless of the"best" reading of the Talmudic sources, the custom observed by"all Israel " represents at any rate a good one, a plausible one that does not necessarily stand in violation of halakhah.

This"incorporation" might better be dubbed the "naturalization" of minhag. As our analysis of these three examples shows, minhag is something of a foreign element within the classic halakhic system. Halakhah is anchored in the lines of sacred text. The"right" or"correct" halakhah is determined by interpretation of the text, a study aimed at rendering the best and most convincing account of the text's words and passages. This search for the"best" and"most convincing" is a process of deductive analysis, the logical explication of the Talmudic sugya, the declaration of the law in a code, or the elaboration of a scholar in his commentary or responsum. As is the case with most other legal literatures, the authoritative interpretation of halakhah is entrusted to a specially trained body of scholars who possess the requisite intellectual talents to follow the logic of the texts and the religious probity to be recognized as posqim, decisors of the law.

The"anchor of minhag, by contrast, is the fact of its continuation within a community over a period of time. Its justification lies not in logic, nor even in a Talmudic text, but in the fact that a particular body of Jews has adopted and held fast to it. Its authority derives not simply from sacred text but from sacred

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