The Future of Creativity in Jewish Law and Thought (1993)

View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

Freedom and Constraint in the Jewish Judicial Process (1979)

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, in his small but influential volume, The Nature of the Judicial Process, made a major effort to separate and describe the subjective elements that operate in the judge’s decision-making process and in the body of objective law which he must consult and whose loyal interpreter he must be in reaching a judicial decision. The four “methods" he elaborates offer a structure by which to probe the degree of freedom of and restraint upon the judge in his judicial role.It is appropriate to pursue the same theme in other forms and traditions of law. This essay is devoted to a preliminary exploration of the question of freedom and constraint in the Jewish judicial process. Because of certain basic dissimilarities between Jewish law (Halakhah) and Anglo-Saxon and American law, the problem will have to be posed in different form and begin with more fundamental philosophic issues. Hence, we shall first investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the question, and we shall then proceed to a halakhic survey and analysis.I. The Halakhic System: Monistic or Pluralistic?The Halakhah claims for itself divine origin: the Written Law (or Torah—i.e., the Scriptures, especially the Pentateuch) and the Oral Law (later reduced into writing in the Talmud) were revealed to Moses at Moun nai, and contained a warrant for the judges of each succeeding generation to decide, in each case brought before them, all doubts and disputes in the light of the revealed legislation. This assumption of divine provenance must, of course, be accepted at face value and on its own terms if any investigation into the nature of the halakhic judicial process is to be valid in assessing the role of the judge who must, a priori, accept this assumption in order to qualify as a judge.The problem, then, may be stated as follows: Is the Halakhah, which has undergone massive development and elaboration through the centuries, always assumed to be in consonance with the absolute, divinely revealed …

General Jewish Thought Halachik Method Jewish Law & Secular Law

The Future of Creativity in Judaism - Lecture (1991)

1. What motivated me to choose the theme of novelty and creativity (or חידוש) in Jewish life is not some academic speculation but a worry – that a rupture is taking place between the past and the future of creativity in both Halakhah and מחשבה – although I shall concentrate on the former. All of us here are, directly or indirectly, disciples of the Rav שליט"א, and for us creativity is an accepted part of our דרך both in הלכה ומחשבה. Can any of us imagine a שעור or דרשה of the Rav without a marvelous

General Jewish Thought Halachik Method

The Future of Creativity in Halacha (1991)

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm reflects on the future of Torah scholarship and the willingness of its scholars to employ creativity in interpreting Torah.

General Jewish Thought