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Isserles , EHE 177:5. This raises the issue of precedent in halakhah: on what basis does Kluger determine that Isserles ’ decision concerning an unmarried woman applies to the case of a Gentile spouse? This issue will be discussed below, as part of my analysis of Ouziel’s decision.
This is Rambam ’s understanding of R. Yose’s statement(M. Avot 2:12),"let all your actions be for the sake of Heaven". According to Rambam , this constitutes a demand that the individual harness his entire being and all his actions toward the apprehension of God (Commentary to Avot , ch. 5).
A rather obvious point: how can we expect of the Gentile spouse-to-be a higher degree of religiosity than that of her intended? Yet the obvious needs at times to be stated. See the discussion of R. Moshe Feinstein , below.
Resp. Imrei Yosher, v. 1, no. 176. Arik(d. 1925) was one of the leading Galician halakhic authorities.
Yad, Isurey Bi’ah 14:1; Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 268:12. Resp. Melamed Leho‘il, v. 2, nos. 83 and 85.
Consequentialist arguments such as these, strewn throughout Hoffmann’s responsa, support the widely-held perception of him as an Orthodox"reformer" of the halakhah who issued lenient rulings in a conscious effort to adapt Jewish observance to the challenges of a modern, liberal-secular environment. See Jonathan Brown, Modern Challenges to Halakhah(Chicago , 1969).
I refer to the statement"the innocent should not suffer for the sins of the guilty" as "extralegal" since it is hardly a universal principle of Jewish law; witness the agunah and the mamzer. And one searches almost in vain for the contemporary Orthodox halakhist who would agree with Hoffmann’s policy judgement that it is better to convert these people ourselves rather than let them go to Reform rabbis.
Resp. Achiezer, v. 3, no. 26.
. Lev. 18:19, 29; Yad, Issurei Bi'ah 1:1. Grodzinsky assumes, plausibly, that niddah is one
of the commandments which the currently intermarried couple will violate upon the woman's conversion.
Resp. Da‘at Kohen, nos. 154-155.
Resp. Heikhal Yitzhaq, Even Ha'ezer 1:1, nos. 19, 20, and 21; Pesakim Ukhetavim, Jerusalem , 1990, v. 4, nos. 87, 89, 90, and 91.
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