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Towards a New Conception of Halakhic Pro

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Conservative Judaism faces a critical dilemma: how can rabbis maintain halakhic observance while accepting historical-critical scholarship that challenges traditional beliefs about divine revelation? Responding to Edward Feld's critique of this apparent contradiction, Levin employs philosophical and theological analysis to navigate the tension between traditional claims of Sinaitic revelation and modern biblical evidence. Though acknowledging the intellectual inconsistency, he demonstrates that the traditional halakhic framework offers irreplaceable benefits: intellectual rigor, systematic religious constraints, and the vital integration of study with practice. Rather than abandoning halakhic structure for subjective religious standards, Levin proposes new conceptual frameworks that preserve objectivity while honestly confronting the limitations of human knowledge. He suggests that halakhic principles may retain objective validity through their fulfillment of universal human needs for ritual structure, even as traditional theological justifications become untenable. This reconceptualized understanding of halakhic process could enable Conservative Judaism to preserve systematic religious practice while embracing historical consciousness, potentially marking a new phase in halakhic development.

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    Published 1975

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    Leonard Levin