Alan Sokobin
Of greater import, in response to the question of the interrelationship of Jewish law and American law, has been the revivification of Jewish law in every aspect of American Jewish life. It is not an accident of modern history that the subject of halakhah has been given greater academic importance within all the
streams of Jewish religious observance. One could well expect this emphasis in the orthodox community; one might anticipate greater stress on halakhah in adherents of the conservative movement. Of greater importance to me is the newly strengthened thrust of traditional halakhic norms upon the antinomian tendencies of the reform philosophy. Ken Yirbu!
Notes
“[W]e have had the experience of feeling our souls split—between our com mitment to Judaism and our commitment to American life, between the pull of tradition and the insistence of the modern world, between our ties to our family and our need to play out our emerging selves.” Harold Kushner , “Forward ” to Milton Steinberg , As a Driven Leaf, New York , 1987
“Elisha[ben Abuya] said reflectively That is the fantastic intolerable paradox of my life, that I have one question for what I possessed initially—a
belief to invest my days with dignity and meaning, a pattern of behavior through which man might most articulately express his devotion to his fel lows.” Id. at 474.
See 7 Encyclopaedia Judaica , 1972, vol. 7, p. 1156.“The word‘Halakhah,’..the legal side of Judaism ...embraces personal, social, national and international relationships, and all the other practices and observances of Judaism .” See also Random House Dictionary of the English Language, New York , 1967, p. 637 It defines halakhah as“1. The entire body of Jewish law and traditions comprising the laws of the Bible , the oral law as transcribed in the legal portion of the Talmud , and subsequent legal codes amending or modifying traditional precepts to conform to contemporary conditions. 2. A law or tradition established by the halakah.”
“Like other legal systems, the halakhah is c omposed of different elements, not all of equal value, since some are regarded as of Sinaitic origin others of rabbinical.” Encyclopaedia Judaica 1157,“ Sources of Authority.”
But see 1 J. David Bleich , Contemporary Halakhic Problems, KTAV, New York , 1977, p. xiv. He states that“[t]he divine nature of Torah renders it immutable and hence not subject to amendment or modification.” He further states that “[a]lthough the Torah itself is immutable, Sages teach that the interpretation of its many laws and regulations is entirely within the province of human intellect. Torah is divine but,‘lo ba-shamayim hi- it is not in the heavens (Deut. 30:12) is to be interpreted and applied by man.”
“These sentiments[of the Rabbinical Assembly ] bespeak a lack of recogni
tion of the fact that halakhah possesses an enduring validity which, while