PETER S. KNOBEL

The aggadah(theology and ethics) are primary for liberal

halakhah;"* halakhah is also essential for liberal Judaism . Dr. Adler

Halakhah belongs to liberal Jews no less than to Orthodox Jews because the stories of Judaism belong to us all. A halakhah 1s communal praxis grounded in Jewish stories. Ethicists, theologians and lawyers who Stress the centrality of narrative would argue that all normative systems rest upon stories....A praxis is more than the sum of various practices that constitute it. A praxis is a holistic embodiment in action at a particular time of the values and commitments inherent in a particular story. Orthodoxy cannot have monopoly on halakhah, because no form of Judaism can endure without one; there would be no way to live

it out."

In Judaism , sanctification is an act of separation that causes

one to be in God ’s presence and/or to live in relation to God . Imi­tateo dei(the imitation of God ) is a major mode of sanctification.

It is a reciprocal process.

You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy for I am the Eternal your God . You shall faithfully observe my laws. I the Eternal make you holy."

In Reform Judaism , kedusha is primarily an ethical category

but not exclusively so. In Genesis 2-3, for example, God rests, blesses, and hallows the seventh day, thereby creating Shabbat . Each week the Jew does the same thing to create Shabbat . Without human action Shabbat does not come. The time remains in the category of chol(ordinary) rather than kadosh(holy). If the Jew does not do what God does, Shabbat does not come. It remains only in potentia. The Torah itself provides the primary rationale for Shabbat observance as a reminder of Creation and Redemption.

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