25.
26.
ne
Ll. 28. 29.
30.
, vol. II, pp- 901-902.
Freehof , p. 8, citing Tractate Sofrim 14:16.
J. Yevamot 12:1(12¢).
This is also Elon ’s conclusion, Vol. II, pp. 907-909 and notes ad loc.
M. Bava Metzia 7:1.
J. Bava Metzia 7:1(11b).
Tosefta Bava Metzia 11:23(Lieberman, ed.) explicitly states that the residents of a city are free to determine local wages and working conditions.
Bet Yosef 690. In other words, Karo first cited the customs and their importance and their base, however tenuous, in Scripture. Then in the Shulhan Arukh he eliminated them. Isserles supplemented the Shulhan Arukh with Karo’s own words, but eliminated the reference to a scriptural basis.
Yoreh Deah 376:4.
Freehof , p. 9. The notion that there is an entity called“Judaism ” which “needs readjustment” at certain specific times requires a separate critique. Elon , vol. I, pp. 122ff.
Ibid, p. 131.
Elon , vol. II, p. 910, citing Resp. Rashbash#419.
Ibid, p. 903, n. 27.
The first volume contains chapters on Public Worship, Marriage and Divorce, Naming of Children and Circumcision, and Burial and Mourning ; the second volume adds chapters of The Synagogue Building. The Synagogue Service, Marriage and Conversion, and Death , Burial and Mourning . See the brief overview by I. Ta-Shma,“Minhagim Books,” Encyclopedia Judaica , Jerusalem , 1972, Vol. 12, col. 27-29.
On September 1, 1978, in an interview recorded by Rabbi Kenneth J. Weiss, Dr. Freehof stated:“The Reform movement was born on the world of enlightenment, of culture and science, in which things were judged by what sense and what logic and what proper justification they had. And if a ceremony seemed to have no logical meaning it could be dropped, it would be dropped, without any[unintelligible]. We moved out of the age of philosophy into the age of psychology. That means now, things are judged, not by what they make sense, but what they do to you. Once, I would say,‘I can believe in this.” Now I say,‘It sends me.’ So therefore, ceremonies which had no justification in the past still don’t have justification but have appeal in the present. So[because of this change] there is a different attitude toward the meaning of ceremonialism. But we can adopt whatever sends us—provided we know that we are adopting it. And if we know that we are adopting it, and if it ceases to have meaning we can again drop it, then we are Reform Jews. Not by what ceremonies we observe or don’t observe, but what we think of the ceremonies that we observe.... If we believe that we have the right when they cease to have meaning to us... So our congregation never had bar mitzvah, now has bar mitzvah. The spirit has changed. Our congregation never had a chuppah, our ladies have embroidered a magnificent chuppah. Our congregation that never had a chazzan now has a Reform chazzan, a lady chazzan. We call it, however, with a self-satisfying name, a cantorial soloist, so we feel more Reform at it. In other words, we're in a period where we need pictorialization of Judaism again and it might as well