Asu Seyag La Torah 107

The awesome authority of halakhic legislation must be uti­lized judiciously. Legislative powers are best saved for true emergencies and untenable situations. Progressive halakhah must continue to develop methodologies that incorporate critical scholarship and modern ethical values in the decision-making process. Those methodologies must acknowledge the dramatic differences between liberal Jews and fundamentalist Jews .

The role of Progressive Halakhah is not to impose its author­ity on Jews . Itis a much needed tool that enables liberal Jews to teach the why and how to of modern Jewish practice and ethics. It establishes parameters that are most important.

Notes

1. Mark Washofsky,“The Search for Liberal Halakhah,” Dynamic Jewish Law, (Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah, Rodef Shalom Press), Pittsburgh , 1991, pp. 254f.

Ibid., p. 45.;

This article is based on a lecture I delivered at a regional rabbinic conference in 1999. It seeks to provide a short aid to Jews interested in the development of halakhic principles(both traditional and progressive). My teachers and col­leagues, Mark Washofsky and Moshe Zemer , have recently published books that offer more comprehensive and authoritative explanations of the same. Moshe Zemer ’s Halakha Shefuyah, has been revised and translated: Evolving Halakhah: A Progressive Approac h to Traditional Jewish Law,(Jewish Lights), Vermont , 1999. Mark Washofsky has just published Jewish Living: A Guide To Contemporary Reform Practice,(UAHC Press), New York , 2001.;

4. See The Struggle over Reform in Rabbinic Literature , Alexander Guttman, (WUPJ ), New York , 1977.

In addition to the above-mentioned books(Evolving Halakhah by Moshe Zemer , and Jewish Living by Mark Washofsky), for an excellent review of Pro­gressive Halakhah's ideals and methodology see Dynamic Jewish Law, Pro­gressive Halakhah, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemert; and Mark : 1 the“Reform Rabbinate” published in

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Washofsky’s introduction Responsa an Teshuvot for the Nineties, CCAR, 1997, pp- Xiii-XxiX.

6. Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Stand Movement, 4 Vols: 1927-1970 and 1980-1985, Jerusalem , 1997.

7. See Emet Ve-Emunah, Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism ,(Jewish Theological Seminary of America , 1988), pp- 21-24. For an example of po gressive halakhah as practiced by the Conservative movement, see The Ordi­

lards of the Conservative