Philosopher and Poseq- 83 ­

the bow. When the string is tight, the bow will evoke the melody."(26) It was perfectly possible for man to gradually climb up the ladder of spirituality step by step through observance of individual mitzvot and so come closer to God . This kind of approach overcame some of the criticism of those who felt that religious motivation through kavanmah might be slow in coming and that a"leap of action" represented a path consistent with the traditions of Judaism .

Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), the founder and creator of Reconstructionist Judaism , slowly changed his approach to halakhah over the years. In his first work, Judaism as a Civilization, published in 1934, Kaplan vigorously attacked Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism , though in reality he was attacking what no longer existed as these branches of Judaism had changed by the mid-thirties.

In his effort to deal with mitzvah and halakhah, but without the inherited baggage attendant to these terms, Kaplan defined Jewish law as folkways. He never used the term halakhah for Jewish law and so gave it a personal definition which incorporated the legal and personal aspects of life along with communal piety and the emotional elements of religion which make it effective. Through his efforts, Kaplan wished to rescue and reconstitute as much of tradition as was possible for modern getimes. This was especially true of all those matters connected with the Jewish calendar or and the Jewish life-cycle.(27) This was likewise the pattern which he followed in his"Guide for Jewish Ritual Use" which appeared in the Reconstructionist in 1941. Through that effort he