Chapter 3

AGAINST METHOD: Liberal Halakhah Between Theory and Practice*

Mark Washofsky

I find the topic of this volume both fascinating and frustrating. It is

fascinating because, well, this is what we liberal halakhists do. Much of our work, perhaps even its essence, centers upon the effort to go“beyond the letter of the law,” to work toward a more exalted understanding of the halakhic tradition, a vision of halakhah that is more lenient, flexible, affirmative of contemporary values, and morally uplifting than that promulgated in the halakhic writings of nonliberals. It is our guiding conviction that the stringent pesak or pesikah (halakhic decision making) of today’s Orthodox rabbinate, a trend that we associate with the“letter” of the law, represents neither the only nor the best available interpretation of Jewish legal thought on a host of important questions. To borrow a word or two from our teacher Moshe Zemer, to whom we pay tribute in these pages, we liberals believe in an“evolving” and“sane” halakhah,' one that is fully capable of yielding answers and guidance that cohere with our highest conceptions of religious truth.

Our topic is frustrating because we can’t get anyone to listen to us. We liberal halakhists occupy a middle ground between two groups of Jews who respond to our work with a mixture of apathy and disdain. To our left stand those Jews who dismiss traditional Jewish law as at best irrelevant and at worst positively injurious to our most deeply cherished liberal values. Jewish law, they claim, supports doctrines and teachings that inevitably contradict our intellectual and ethical commitments on issues such as human freedom and autonomy, social justice, gender equality, and the relations between Jews and the non-Jewish world. No approach to Jewish law, however“liberal” it might be, can successfully alter its parochial and backward-looking