established on a voluntary democratic basis.(31) Such procedures would be in keeping with the definition of God as"the power that makes for salvation" and democracy as the way in which the people move toward that salvation. Although Kaplan felt strongly that traditional law should continue to be observed and maintained whenever they continued to possess meaning and be reinterpreted when that meaning was gone, he also felt that new laws and rituals should be created when the need arose. Their acceptance might be slow but movement in this direction was necessary
on a communal basis if the current chaos was to be overcome.
He felt that one of the primary difficulties in this entire effort was lay with both extremes, traditionalist on the one hand who saw meaning in every detail and a vast group at the other end of the spectrum who had never experienced any benefit from ritual, and so saw no value in it whatsoever. He felt that the only way to overcome this problem and to bridge the gap was through the creation of a large number of groups who would"formulate for themselves the criteria by which they will discriminate between observances that should be maintained, or, perhaps, that should be created and observances that ought to become obsolete."(32)
Kaplan felt strongly that much of this needs to be done not only in the Diaspora but also in Israel . Only in a democratic society would Jewish law again become significant. Furthermore, he indicated that frequently the
In various essays Kaplan also discussed