A gainst Method 43

ideology, weltanschauung, or da at torah. These rabbis could, of course, be wrong, but I do not know why we should regard the outsider’s definition of their activity as more convincing than their own.

Halakhah as a Social Practice

To summarize thus far: I have argued against the contention that liberal halakhah is an incorrect and invalid understanding of the tradition of Jewish law. This is so because in order to sustain that judgment, those who make it must demonstrate the existence of a set of formulaic criteria— some sort of method— by which to measure the objective correctness or incorrectness of any particular interpretation of the halakhah. The controversy over the Zionist halakhic tradition shows that such a method does not exist: neither side in that dispute could convince the other of the correctness of its legal viewpoint through the application of the formal procedures of halakhic analysis. The irreconcilability of that disagreement is no unique or exceptional case, because law and legal decision in general cannot be reduced to the application of a system of hard and fast rules. Before they can reach their answers, judges must define the terms of the rules; they must decide which of several alternative rules covers the case; and they will frequently resort to other legal sources such as principles that are much less specific than rules. All of these moves involve acts of judicial choice that cannot be determined by the formal rules of law. Rather, they are determined by the so-called metalegal factors that function as the inevitable and necessary context for all legal decision making. For these reasons,“method” cannot define or establish the correctness of any statement of law or halakhah. And for that reason, Orthodox halakhists cannot summarily reject our work as an incorrect or invalid understanding of Jewish law.

At this point, the reader might well sniff an aroma of relativism wafting from my argument. If halakhic decision making is inevitably grounded in an act of rabbinical choice among alternative outcomes,