Chapter II

Reform Responsa: Developing a Theory of Liberal Halakhah

Peter J. Haas

The phrase"Reform halakhah" seems to be an oxymoron. halakhah, after all, is the corpus of norms that make up traditional rabbinic Judaism , the single correct way in which social and religious problems are to be defined, analyzed and adjudicated by the holy people of Israel . In fact, since the late eighteenth century, the word halakhah has come to be somewhat synonymous with Orthodox praxis. This is precisely, however, what Reform Judaism was originally formed to protest. If there is any hallmark of the Reform tradition, it is the rejection not only of particular Orthodox halakhot-- norms-- but of the whole concept that there can be, are, or ought to be such a system of absolute norms in the first place. How then are we to make any sense of a phrase like"Reform halakhah"?

In what follows I hope to throw some light on what the oxymoron"Reform halakhah" has meant in our movement. I propose to do so not from a philosophical perspective: what meaning can these words have when used in juxtaposition, but from an historical one. That is, I propose to find out what"Reform halakhah" is by examining the phenomenon of Reform halakhic processes over the last century and a half. I do not intend to pass judgment whether the process is good, bad,