ABSTRACT
This great veneration for the views of earlier authorities did not prevent Jewish law from establishing, over a period of time, a fundamental principle for deter mining the law - a principle that, on the surface, seems contrary to the principle of priority of the earlier over the latter, but which was essential in order to empower the authorities of later generations to make legal rulings responsive to contemporary problems and consonant with contemporary conditions. This important principle is that “the law is in accordance with the views o f the later authorities” (hilkheta ke-vatra ’e i \ and it has existed since the geonic period.1
