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this reaction in the introductory words penned by Rabbi Shaul Yisrael to the first two volumes of H7M. In volume 1,*° Yisraeli emphasizes the urgency of the intellectual task that the Zionist rabbis have set for themselves. He writes: Had we but foreseen the sudden rise of a sovereign Jewish state,we would long ago have set up a council of scholars who would have devoted the requisite effort to develop a halakhic constitution and legal code for the new Jewish polity. Yet even now— the spring of 1949— it is not too late: the laws of the state, which still rest largely upon the legal foundation laid during the period of the British mandate, will be replaced, and it is our urgent mission to see to it that they are replaced by a truly Jewish legal system. Yisraeli realizes that the nonobservant segment of the population, particularly those enamored of all things gentile and who regard Jewish tradition as inferior and outdated, will have no use for this effort. Yet he is more concerned about opposition from“Torah scholars who fear a public study of contemporary halakhic issues, who hesitate to issue rulings on these matters lest the wider community make improper use of their words. They urge caution, abstention, and inactivity.”*® Yisraeli rejects these fears. Those who wish to make “improper use” of the words of Torah will do so in any event, no matter what we rabbis do. Our task is to study and publish our findings for the benefit of those who sincerely wish to know what the

Torah has to teach us. He adds the following: This would appear to be one of the chief reasons for the failure of observant Judaism , that out of fear and hesitation we tend to ignore contemporary problems. But it is in the nature of things that problems do not disappear simply because they are ignored. And if the leading Torah sages do not search for solutions, other hands are ready to find other, and unhappy, solutions. By the following year," Yisraeli’s criticism of his Orthodox opposition had grown angrier and more despondent. He noted that “there are those who cast a suspicious eye upon our work, as they do upon all the activities of the Rabbinical Council of Hapo'el Hamizrachi. Halakhic rulings, they contend, should be the exclusive province of veteran rabbinical scholars.” Yisraeli concedes that such

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