reforms prior to the formation of the CCAR, the rapidity of change, the paucity of rabbis in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the great variety of practice gives the impression that the initial impetus for religious reform among American Jews, as among German Jews earlier, came from the people. Yearbooks from the early decades of the CCAR'’s existence reveal the rabbis’ urgent desire to systematize the practice of American Reform Jews—rarely to cancel, retract, or oppose the changes that had manifested themselves in their synagogues and personal lives, but to order them, and to reorganize Jewish religious practice on a basis that reflected the people’s actual practice. During Kauf mann Kohler ’s tenure as president of the Hebrew Union College (1903-1926) and as a dominant personality within the CCAR, he labored mightily to produce unity of thought and practice in the movement.“Classical” Reform Judaism, which owed its shape more to him than to any other single individual, remained largely unchanged in outward form throughout the interwar period.
Solomon B. Freehof was ordained at HUC in 1915 and served on its faculty until 1924. The evidence before Freehof ’s eyes in Reform Judaism was that the people initiated or desired change as circumstances changed, and the rabbinate organized and regularized the changes. The rabbinate did not lead the way in making change(except, as he notes,“[t]he rabbis have expressed certain principles, certain theological ideals...”"”). What Freehof learned and saw of Reform in his years as a student and as a rabbi up to the time he wrote this book conforms precisely to the model he presents here.'®“The doctors of the law understood... that they depended upon the creative imagination of the people.”
As proof of his theory that Reform is simply continuing the time-honored process of creating new minhagim, Freehof cites six passages: two each from the two Talmuds and the Shulhan Arukh. A closer examination of these passages, however, will reveal that their support for his argument is problematic.
1. Berakhot 45b
M. Berakhot 6:8 reads:“If one drinks water to quench one’s thirst, one should say[beforehand the blessing],... by whose word all things exist.” R. Tarfon says:[one should say]“... who creates many living beings.” The Gemara explains: R. Tarfon says:[He