sponsa were printed in the CCAR Yearbook in 1911?" What was the reason for this hiatus of almost 90 years?
Walter Jacob explains this phenomenon in his introduction to American Reform Responsa:
The writing of responsa was halted because of the pace of the Reform Revolution. The life of our people was changing rapidly, and it became impossible to argue about each detail.... The path then taken was akin to that of all revolutions: it began rather brusquely, pushed much aside, but always with the understanding that these areas were valuable and needed attention after the main struggle was won. That task could not be accomplished by the revolutionary generation; in such a grand effort, minute details did not have to be justified.”
This is an original explanation based on historical and sociological constructs. It may be complemented by another important element in nineteenth-century Reform Judaism ; namely, antinomianism. This phenomenon is illustrated in the following guide written in 1842 by Dr. M. Frankel for the editorial board of the Hamburg Temple:
This Synagogue of the Spirit follows principles different from those of a formal and fixed rabbinism, which happily, forms only a small fraction of our modern Judaism . In such rabbis we see a hierarchical authority which we reject as error. Hence we must hold up to obloquy all these apostles of regression.”
Reform must avoid as much as possible to press the banner of progress into the rigid hands of the Talmud . The time has to come when one feels strong enough vis-a-vis the Talmud to oppose it, in the knowledge of having gone far beyond it... The
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