Precisely because
halakah must be dynamic and respond to current situations, Berkovits stresses how problematic the position of women in
halakah is.
Sanders thinks he can prove this by examining 'all the instances of "words of the scribes", "
halakah", "receive a tradition", and "
halakah given to Moses on Sinai" which occur in the Mishnah and Tosefta' to see if they indicate 'oral law'.
These views informed and framed his writings in every area of
halakah and his stance on conversion was informed by these considerations.
The introductory and concluding essays are by Peter Richardson and four (|Whence "The Torah" of Second Temple Judaism', |Torah, Nomos and |Law', |Law, Grace and the "Soteriology" of Judaism and Christian Ethics') are by Stephen Westerholm; essays by Michael Pettem on |Torah and Early Christian Groups', Albert Baumgarten on |Rivkin and Neusner on the Pharisees', and Cecilia Wassen on |Sadducees and
Halakah' complete the volume.
His views on questions of practical
halakah, on the status of women and on conversion, are clear and unequivocal, and so are many parts of his philosophy of
halakah.
While he remains close to Maimonides in his high regard for
halakah as a way to human perfection and disagrees with Spinoza's dismissing the law after the end of the Jewish state, Mendelssohn shows the compatibility of
halakah with political liberty and religious tolerance as they were taught by Spinoza.
Between 1948 and the mid-1950s, Zionist leaders and thinkers contributed to the evolving dialectical relationship between a secular, modern democracy and traditional Jewish culture based on
halakah. Religious Zionists were very much aware of the challenge that democratic principles posed to the Jewish tradition and were often reluctant to compromise their halakic commitments for the sake of the demands of a democratic state.
By implication, the humiliation attested to by women, religious and nonreligious, makes the segregation unacceptable in Jewish law,
halakah. (25)
It is founded on
halakah Jewish law) and on liberal principles.
halakah which is a "prescription," "the definition of the
(32) Marks may not translate the Talmudic tractate, or, indeed, provide any exposition of the Jewish dietary laws, yet he does clearly situate Jewish cuisine in halakha, Jewish law: "Following
Halakah [sic] (Jewish law) meant that Jews could not simply adopt all of the dishes of their new homelands.
The book concludes with a chapter entitled "The River Flows On." This chapter demonstrates beyond a shadow of doubt that the post-Talmudic sources of
halakah, including Maimonides, the Shulhan Arukh, and contemporary Conservative and Orthodox halakhic authorities including Harav Moshe Feinstein, of blessed memory, and, may they be distinguished for life, Harav Eliezer Judah ben Jacob Gedaliah Waldenberg, Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, Fred Rosner, M.D., Rabbi J.