Halakha and the Challenge of Israeli Sovereigntyexamines the issues surrounding national, political, and religious sovereignty from the vantage point ofhalakha and its evolution. The work analyzes the efforts of the interpretative communities who adhered tohalakhathe rabbinical authoritiesas well as other groups who endeavored to help or to change it: the Jewish jurists in Eretz Israel who sought to integrate sections ofhalakha into the Jewish collective; and the religious academics who wanted more meaningful recognition ofhalakha in non-halakhic values. The assessment extends from the beginning of the Jewish national movement in the last two decades of the 19th century to the first two decades of the State of Israel, when weighty problems arose that required ahalakhic response to the challenge of sovereignty.

In this, the volume sheds light on the pliable nature of the concept ofhalakha, particularly in conjunction with its application to the notion of sovereignty.

Introduction

1 The Halakha in the Face of Modernity and Zionism

Reform, Orthodoxy, Modernity

Nationalism and Zionism

The Shmita Debate of 5649 (18881889)

2 Government in the Spirit of the Talmud: The Pioneering Discussion of Zeev Jawitz (1904)

Between Theocracy and the Separation of State and Religion

Religion and Political Life

Religion and Science

Religion and Life

3 The Balfour Declaration and the Pioneering Debate on Halakha and the Challenge of Sovereignty (19171921)

Against the Separation of Religion and State

Restoration of the Sanhedrin

Democracy and Halakhic Reforms

Mishpatey HaMeluchahThe Proposal of a Separate

Monarchical Legal System

National Acceptance of Halakha

4 The Age of Jurists (19181948)

Jewish Law as Zionist Law

Enactments, Not Amendments

Abraham Chaim Freimann

Isaac Breuer 1

5 The Rabbinical Debate on the Eve of the Establishment of the State of Israel and in its Early Years (19471953)

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel: Halakha in the Grip of Democracy

The Status of Non-Jewish Minorities

A Daughters Inheritance

Leo Cohens Draft of Constitution

American Rabbis: Democratic Halakha

6 The Younger Generation of Zionist Rabbis Faces the Challenge of Sovereignty (19481962)

Halakhic Validation: The Theoretical Halakhic Debate on Diverse Aspects of State Institutions

Religious Legislation

Halakha That Regulates and Halakha That Challenges: Renewing Halakhot of Battle and the Army

7 Religious Academics and the Challenge of Sovereignty (19481967)

Permissive State or Torah StateCriticizing the Need to Make Halakha More Flexible in Order to Adapt It to Reality

Observing the Sabbath in the State of Israel

The Status of Women

Ephraim Elimelech Urbach and the Movement for Torah Judaism

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

About the Author