the traditional statements into mitzvot again but the only way of doing so is through observance rather than through waiting for a proper relationship between man and God . In his essay "Relation and Law",(12) Franz Rosenzweig dealt with the law in a number of ways. For him it was a prerequisite of Israel as a chosen people. Divine revelation became something that human beings could understand and to which they could relate. The halakhah was less a statement of God than a"soliloquy" of human beings as they sought God . Rosenzweig was not so much concerned with the details of the law but with the spirit of sanctity which they had once provided for those who observed the. He like Buber opposed ortho-practice which led to blind unthinking observance.(13) As God ’s covenant with Israel was eternal it was necessary for each generation to transform the thoughts of that covenant to fit a new mood and a new era. That needed to be done through a process of change and selectivity. This was partially made on a highly personal basis and partially made by people as a whole.(14)
As both of’' of these thinkers were Existentialist philosophers, they began with the individual, however Buber carried the individualism much further and made that the primary criteria by which halakhah and mitzvot would be measured. Rosenzweig tried to create a synthesis of tradition with the Existentialist approach.