The Case of Feminism— Mechanisms of Change 49
opening to the outside world." Another Orthodox leader , Jacob Emden regretted that his father had not given him a general education, but opposed the new systematic general studies as they neglected the traditional material.'’
Abraham Geiger was the first to connect innovation to the halakhah through his historical studies, which demonstrated that Judaism had evolved and that changes had always taken place. Geiger showed that the changes in the liturgy as well as those that he suggested for marriage and divorce were part of a continuum. He demonstrated that Jewish women, despite all short-comings, were treated better in the biblical period than were women in the surrounding culture’ and that their condition improved gradually later. The Talmud and subsequent rabbinic literature continued in this direction, albeit with centuries in which progress was scant. Geiger therefore felt that basic changes in such difficult areas as agunah, halitzah, and divorce were legitimate by pointing to major changes that had taken place in the past, prompted by new conditions in the surrounding society.?
Geiger ’s innovation lay in the justification for change through his developmental approach to Jewish history. Halakhic precedent by itself may have been insufficient, but viewed historically, Judaism could be seen in a developmental framework, not as eternally stable. The continuous development was influenced by the surrounding world as well as the internal conditions of Jewish life. This was also Zacharias Frankel ’s(1801-1875) view although he limited it to the rabbinic period. Here was a pattern that provided an ideological basis for many different type of change, including changes in the status of Women.