My Letter That Wasn't Published in AZURE

The letter:

In their "Halacha's moment of truth" (AZURE, 43 ), Evelyn Gordon and Hadassah Levy address the theme of adapting "the Halacha to the requirements of revived Jewish sovereignty" which, in their words, is "...the process of transforming Judaism back into a religion focused on the needs of sovereignty." They assert that this "has barely begun" and that but a "few pioneering rabbis and scholars" are involved at the contemporary moment. Actually, at the very beginning of the state's establishment, these issues were on the agenda and those early efforts should be credited.

The April 1949, the Yavneh Religious Academic Journal published several articles dealing with issues of Constitution and Legislation themes including "The State and Its Constitution", "The Law in Israel" and "Courts and Procedure" spanning over 150 pages. Between 1952-1955, Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg published his three volume "Hilchot Medinah" with 700 pages (and see this). In 1952, Rabbi Dr. Shimon Federbusch's "Mishpat HaM'lucha B'Yisrael" appeared, a second edition came out in 1973. Finally, in 1996, the articles of Rabbi Shlomo Goren dealing with the state of Israel and matters of Halacha that appeared over the past five decades in various journals were published in a collected "Torat HaMedinah", an almost 500 page tome (see also here).

The material in these books dealt with all the topics Gordon and Levy enumerate as essential for a modern state based on principles of the Halacha. The writings of Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn of the first two decades of the 20th century, first published in his 1929 Malki BaKodesh, should also be noted. He castigated what he perceived as the apprehensive reluctance of Rabbis to deal with the urgent questions of the relevancy of Halacha to modern life and its demands politically, economicaly and scientificallyy.

I would suggest that the beginnings of the process were there for almost 60 years but what was missing was the true vision and daring in the Rabbinical establishment. The groundbreaking interpretations required to meet the challenges of the times were available and there for all to read. But human frailties and lack of intellectual courage were at fault.