[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[Michael Makovi]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 5:26 PM, Daniel Eidensohn <yadmoshe at 012.net.il> wrote:
>
>  R' Michael Makovi wrote:
>
> >>  I wrote:
>  >> *R' Angel* is not concerned with whether they are committed to keep the
>  >>  entire Torah. He stated the following in an interview published in
>  >>  Forward November 2007
>  >>

> > Rabbi Berkovits characterized it as an eit la'asot lashem, dropping
>  > the law of gerut in favor of unity of Am Yisrael. Not that I'm an
>  > expert, but he has me convinced.
>  >

>  If I understand you properly, R' Berkovitz argues that whenever the
>  Torah laws become difficult to keep they should be simply abrogated
>  because of ais la'asos. According to this if we are prepared to have
>  Israel populated by "make believe" Jews for the sake of "Jewish unity"
>  we should also do away with the problem of aguna and mamzerim by saying
>  these halachos are no longer of concern because it interferes with
>  Jewish unity. Shabbos is also a problem. Hilchos nidda and kashrus are
>  also divisive laws.
>
>
>  Daniel Eidensohn

What Rav Berkovits says has to be understood along with what he says
about Chazal in Not in Heaven: he says that Chazal could never
abrogate a deoraita in theory, but they could okimta it so as to
effectively get rid of it (the rebellious son) or to modify its
operation (for example, with mamzerim, you can just simply not
investigate the evidence, for an aguna you can rely on one witness,
etc.). I'm not an expert on exactly what he intends, but it is very
obvious he means nothing similar to simply wiping laws out.

What he says is that the Torah was meant to be a living evolutionary
code (therefore it was davka Oral and not Written), and therefore it
could freely evolve according to the legitimate needs of human living.
His Not in Heaven is full of examples he brings from the Gemara to
illustrate what he intends.

But he is of course committed to the halachic system (unlike
Conservative, who use disengenous pseudo-halachic solutions), and he
did not (or at least, he did not knowingly) import foreign values into
Judaism (unlike Conservative); he relied on Tanachic values, as did
Chazal.

A more thorough discussion of this would take me more time than I
currently have. On Azure.co.il, there's an article by David Hazony,
with a title something about revival of Jewish moral thought, on this
entire subject.

Mikha'el Makovi