for the"correct" answer has worked a powerful effect upon the state of contemporary halakhic thought.
1. R. HAIM HALEVY SOLOVEITCHIK: THE PATH OF ANALYSIS
By the time of his death in 1918, R. Haim Halevy Soloveitchik had become the acknowledged giant of the Lithuanian "analytical" method of Talmud study that arose during the nineteenth century and continues to dominate the curriculum of many yeshivot?’ Lithuanian analysis is characterized by a relatively high degree of conceptual abstraction. Problems in halakhah are studied not so much in terms of their real-world settings and circumstances as by means of the basic concepts said to underlie them. Drawing fine logical distinctions between aspects of a basic concept, the analyst seeks to dispose of a problem which had occupied the minds of Talmudists for generations. Put differently, he does not"solve" that problem; he makes it disappear of its own accord.?® Particularly noteworthy in the case of Soloveitchik is his use of the technique"shnei dinim", which explains an halakhic concept or principle as consisting of two basic components. A dispute over a legal issue can be resolved by showing that the view of each disputant is informed by one of the two aspects of the same principle. And since these two aspects constitute one legal principle, by definition there ultimately can be no real contradiction between the two authors or sources. What appears to be a disagreement among authorities is reduced to a difference of emphasis.?
Soloveitchik applies this method to our issue in his novellae to Maimonides ' Mishneh Torah.* He notes that Rambam permits abortion of the fetus in utero on the grounds of"pursuit," and he recalls that many have raised difficulties against this ruling. Does not the Talmud itself, as interpreted by Rashi and others, reject the designation of the fetus as a rodef? Is not the abortion justified on the grounds that the fetus is not yet a nefesh and thus may be sacrificed to save the mother? He begins by positing that the law of the rodef is composed of two rules. The first rule, which pertains to the pursuer's intended victim, imposes a duty to save that person's life. It is essentially a
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