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buttress this approach by pointing to policy considerations that demand this ruling(Hoffmann); in this, we see an example of the positivist view of the judge's decision in a hard case as an act of legislation. These arguments are rejected as out of place by other "positivists", who emphasize that the answer must come from the legal texts alone(Grodzinsky). Some of our scholars derive their answers to hard cases by the method, described by Dworkin, of resorting to general legal principles and interpretive theories of the law as a whole(Kook, Herzog). We have also seen how posqim will attribute legal argumentation to support the rulings of those with whom they disagree(Feinstein, Herzog). In so doing, they provide evidence for the realist conception of judicial reasoning as the formal justification for a decision that is"really" warranted by goals that lie outside the judge's reasons.
As noted above, theories developed for the analysis of secular law are not a perfect fit with a religious system, and within their own jurisprudential sphere these theories are controversial. With these caveats in mind, however, they offer a helpful perspective for grasping the essentially indeterminate nature of the halakhah on controversial questions such as ours. Our results indicate that halakhah, like other legal systems, offers no one "correct" answer to questions disputed by its authorities(or, as a Dworkinian might say, no one"correct" answer on which all those authorities can agree). In itself, of course, this observation is hardly news. Mahloget, halakhic dispute, has been regarded as an inevitable feature of rabbinic law at least since tanaitic times, yet it is a feature that has caused considerable discomfort to many. If some authorities look upon it with equanimity, others are distressed at its implicit threat to the unity of the Torah and the effectiveness of Jewish law.® Accordingly, we witness attempts throughout halakhic history to reduce the scope of this legal uncertainty. Criteria for decision-making, kelalei hapesaq of divine as well as human origin, appear to help the rabbis blaze the trail of halakhic truth through the wilderness of mahloget."Codes" are compiled to
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