ABSTRACT

By the eighteenth century, the formative period of Jewish law was a distant memory. Not only had the Babylonian Talmud long since been thoroughly glossed, but even the Shulhan Arukh had been cloaked in commentaries and glosses. Yet no legal system is ever complete, because new issues crop up in every generation, as social circumstances change. It is, therefore, incumbent upon those in positions of judicial and legislative authority to issue rulings and formulate rules that address the new challenges. However, because Jewish law is based on oral tradition, supposedly linking the Jews of every generation with Moses at Sinai, the endless evolution of the legal system carries with it an ever-increasing tension between the gravitational pull of tradition and the ineluctable need for innovation. Medieval rabbis gave voice to this anxiety in nervous proclamations of fidelity to the Ancients and laments about “the decline of the generations,” as generations became further and further removed from the revelational and traditional sources of knowledge.1