Mark Washofsky

upon the scholars to pursue their work more critically and reflectively.'” And that is precisely my point with respect to halakhah. The gaps, technological and otherwise, between the traditional texts and the contemporary issues that confront the halakhist may be significant, but their existence should not deter him or her from the study of Torah . Indeed, the bridging of those gaps is precisely what the study of Torah , historically considered, is all about.

My second observation has to do with the relevance of all this to our enterprise of progressive halakhah. 1 have mentioned“the liberal critics,”''’ those predominantly Reform and Conservative Jewish writers who doubt or deny that traditional halakhic thought can provide an adequate basis for a contemporary progressive Jewish bioethics. Our study, at the very least, calls their claim into question. If the traditional analogy based halakhic process is capable of supporting an intelligent bioethical discourse, it is also capable of supporting an intelligent liberal halakhic discourse. In particular, the CCAR responsum we have considered offers a good example of how Reform rabbis can work within the intellectual boundaries of that process, citing sources and making analogies, and arrive at interpretations of halakhah that are fully expressive of liberal values. Indeed, the record of liberal halakhic writing shows that the same is true with respect to the entire range of moral concerns that arise from the contemporary practice of medicine." Reform and Conservative rabbis, working within the discipline we call progressive halakhah, have produced a large and vital bioethical literature. In short, while some of the liberal critics do not care for the so-called“formalism” of halakhic thinking, and while others are convinced that halakhah, even in its progressive variety, is simply incapable of supporting the particular answers and conclusions that they define as“liberal,” our position is that there is no obvious need for liberal Jews to abandon halakhic thinking in favor of some more suitable bioethical methodology.