[Avodah] What would a Torah government look like

[Michael Makovi]

> BTW in the article of HS there is a fundamental disagreement between
> Haym Soloveitchik and his
> critic R. Buchwold. HS believes that it the job of a posek or RY to be
> inventive to solve contemporary
> choshem mihspat problems and not just issur veheter. The basic thrust
> of the article is the
> inventiveness of Raavad to do exactly that. R. Buchwold looks at it as
> almost a reform jew
> chabging halacha due to changed circumstances. HS argues that there is
> a basic difference
> between Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah where that approach is discouraged
> and Choshen Mishpat
> where it is necessary if halacha is to be relevant to modern commerce.
>
> --
> Eli Turkel

A sad time for Am Yisrael when we have to argue about whether halacha
should be revised for the modern state. The question shouldn't even
arise.

Rabbi Berkovits writes that this was the entire purpose of Torah
She'be'al'pe - new situations and advances would be brought into the
fold of Torah by whatever means possible (obviously, if there's no
way, there's no way).

Rabbi Berkovits writes with much discomfort, the fact that this has
not occurred in the modern state. He says that some still believe, for
example, that we can hand the entire economy over to gentiles on
Shabbat.

Changing halacha due to changed circumstances is davka what chiddushim
and advances in Torah She'be'al'pe are about. If not, then what? The
Reform sought to change halacha to agree with the new circumstance,
abrogating halacha when they couldn't. The Orthodox way  is to adapt
the halacha to encompass and master the new circumstance. With Reform,
foreign value systems are used to change halacha. With Orthodox, Torah
values are used to change halacha to make a ruling on the new
circumstance. It is not really an issue of *changing* halacha, as it
is, rather, having halacha make a ruling on a subject it has never
ruled before. Applying halacha to checks is not changing halacha, but
rather extending it to a new situation.

See David Hazony's introduction to Rabbi Berkovits's Essential Essays
on Judaism.

Mikha'el Makovi