Philosopher and Poseq- 95
halakhic application had a future.
In his book of Reform Responsa, the first of nine volumes of responsa, Solomon B. Frechof points out that the ethical idealism and the Biblical foundations of Reform Judaism could no longer be considered sufficient. There had been a cry for legal discipline. In an essay published in 1960 he analyzed Orthodox Judaism and the vast changes which have occurred not only in its expanding phase through the earlier centuries but also in the present age when massive segments of tradition are not longer observed. Most of its civil law and criminal law remains theoretical. As the entire system considers each segment of detail on the same plane as every other segment this is astonishing. Frechof has described this as following the Talmudic dictum:"As it is a duty to say what will be heard and obeyed so it is also a duty not to say what will not be heard and obeyed"(Yeb. 65b).
Freehof considered Conservative Judaism as an effort to meet the challenge of Orthodox non-observance. Conservatism"means to be rooted in the soil of history and to grow under the sun of legality."(48) However as Freehof points out there are problems connected with this as the task may prove too great and the bitterness of the Orthodox too difficult to overcome. Vast areas of Jewish law can simply not be reinterpreted in a manner applicable to the twentieth century and must be changed or abandoned.