Elliot N. Dorff

A Conversation with the Author

This book discusses a variety of theories of Jewish law. What is a theory of law, and why should anyone care?

A theory of law describes how the author understands the nature of human beings and human society, the role of law for people and societies construed in that way, the sources of authority of the law, the ways in which the law can retain authority and yet change over time to remain relevant to current circumstances, and the relationship between law and morality, religion, and custom. The reason why one should care about such matters is because the way you understand such matters has a critical effect on how you understand yourself and your community, the role of law in your life and that of your community, and the ways in which law can and should remain the same or change over time.

All of these matters sound interesting but very abstract and difficult. Will I be able to understand this book without a background in Judaism, law, and philosophy?

I have deliberately written this book with you in mind! The book does not presume a background in any of these areas; the audience I had in mind while I was writing it was those with a college education or the equivalent who were prepared to think about these matters and engage in the exciting interchange that these conflicting theories engender. In the very first chapter, entitled “Bringing Things Down to Earth,” I explain what a theory is, what Jewish law is, and the general understanding of Jewish law that each of the modern Jewish movements espouses In the second chapter I explain why one should care about such matters more thoroughly than I did in my answer to the previous question. Then, in the third chapter, I describe the biblical and rabbinic roots of Jewish law. These three introductory chapters should bring everyone up to speed on the aspects of Judaism, law, and philosophy that the reader will need to know. Other than the kind of reading and thinking skills that a college education affords, nothing more is required.

What motivated you to write this book?

Truthfully, because I am fascinated with the subject! I have always loved to think about competing ways to construe our lives as they are and should be.

But it is not only a matter of my own interests. I truly believe that this subject is absolutely critical for how we understand ourselves and live our lives. Most people will go through life without ever thinking about these issues, and many will be perfectly moral and law-abiding individuals – some even exemplary. Those who do think carefully about these matters, however, will have the advantage of understanding why they should abide by the law, why and how it can and should remain the same in some respects and change in others over time, and how to make the law a vital part of our own lives. In a religious legal system like Jewish law, studying these matters further explains why Jewish law can be nothing less than a path to the holy, a way to make our lives more godly. Again, people who do not study such matters may nevertheless be perfectly moral and pious people, but those who do study them understand much more about how best to think about he law, practice it, and shape it to enrich our lives in our own time. Ultimately, as Hillel asserted, “the ignorant cannot be truly pious” (Ethics of the Fathers 2:5).

With all of the theories that this book discusses, how can I choose which one to embrace? I am worried that after reading about all these theories, it will all seem like a blur.

Choose mine, of course! All kidding aside, throughout the book I do my very best not only to explain each theory, but also to compare it to others and to evaluate each theory in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. If anything, in the interests of fairness – and truthfully, for my own benefit as I continue to think about these matters – I am harsher on my own theory than I am on others. My description of each theory is then followed by a selection from the writings of the theorist himself or herself so that readers can see the theory in the author’s own words and judge for themselves whether I evaluated it correctly. After a study of this sort, I fully believe that highly intelligent, morally sensitive, learned, and strongly committed Jews can and should differ about which theory is best. After all, the Rabbis asserted that “there are seventy faces to the Torah,” that even the people standing at Sinai understood the revelation there in their own unique ways, and that God is the “God of the spirits of all human beings” – that is, that God knows that we disagree and wants us to be that way – as if you have to tell Jews to disagree! In fact, if your biography is like mine, one theory may appeal to you most at one time in your life and another later on. That is all perfectly natural and, I would say, good, for such continued grappling with these issues and reevaluation of these theories show that you are intellectually and spiritually alive. You may want to write a line or two of summary of each theory and what you like and dislike about it after reading each one so that you can keep them straight, but in the end they should not be a blur but rather a tasty dish with many delicious but different flavors.

How did you prepare for writing this book?

In a sense, I have been preparing to write this book all my life. I grew up in a wonderfully warm and supportive family that was, however, eclectic in its Jewish practices. It was precisely that ambivalence about Jewish practice that Rabbi David Mogilner, may his memory be blessed, Director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, challenged when he led a series of discussions with us 15-and-16-year-olds at the camp in 1958, forcing us to examine why anyone in his or her right mind would adopt any of the practices or beliefs of Judaism. As is often the case in Judaism, the questions were much better than the answers, but what he showed me was that you do not have to close off your mind to be seriously Jewish, that, on the contrary, Judaism begs to be challenged and requires that everyone approach not only our loyalty to God, but to Judaism in general “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might,” as the Shema so starkly proclaims. It was after that summer that I became not only more observant, but more probing in my approach to Judaism and to life in general. That led to an undergraduate major in philosophy and ultimately a doctorate in that subject, with a dissertation in moral theory. Subsequently I wrote three books on aspects of Jewish morals – one each on medical, social, and personal ethics – in addition to some more theoretical articles on the relationship between morals and religion, study, and law. Morals, though, are one way to think about what kind of people we are and should be; law is another. Teaching a course on Jewish law at the UCLA School of Law with comparisons to American law ever since 1974 has complemented the strong grounding in Talmud I was lucky to receive as part of the Talmud Program at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, making it possible for me to understand Jewish law both internally and externally. Thus, in a sense, I have been preparing for decades to write this book.

More directly, though, this book is based on a course I have been teaching for the last ten years at the University of Judaism’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and during a year as a Visiting Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, at the rabbinical school there. I have learned a great deal about all these theories from the questions my students have asked over the years and the interpretations they have suggested. The book reflects that learning, and, as I say in writing in the Foreword, I am deeply indebted to them.

At the same time, the process of committing what I have learned to writing over the two years that I took to write this book has revealed further aspects of many of these theories individually and as a group. After all, writing about these theories required me to think about them yet again with fresh eyes in a sustained and concentrated way. Furthermore, knowing that I would be presenting my interpretations and questions about each theory in a public, written form required me to check and double-check that my understanding of the theories and their strengths and weaknesses was accurate -- or at least a plausible reading among several possible readings of the theory in question. If a given theory is ambiguous on a critical point, I stated that in my description of the theory and sometimes guessed what the author might say; but when I do that, I openly say that I am doing that. Finally, ensuring that what I was writing would be clear not only to rabbis and rabbinical students, but to anyone with a college degree but without a background in Judaism, law, or philosophy required me to state in the clearest and simplest terms possible what each author was saying and the advantages and disadvantages of understanding Jewish law in that way. So my own education, my teaching, and the very process of writing this book have all played a role in creating it.

What did you learn in writing it?

Probably the most important thing that I learned – better, relearned and came to appreciate in a much deeper way – was the wonderfully open, intelligent, and downright feisty nature of our own tradition. The Jewish tradition is definitely not one that expects that its adherents just learn its tenets and practices and accept them at face value. It rather encourages us to question and challenge the very foundations of what we are thinking and doing. From Abraham’s ringing challenge to God – “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” (Genesis 18:25) – to Moses acting as the Israelites’ defense attorney after the incidents of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32-34) and the spies (Numbers 14), to Job challenging the justice of God even if he acknowledges God’s power, to the Rabbis arguing with each other on virtually every page of the Talmud and with God on occasion as well, to medieval and modern philosophical and literary questioning of the grounds of our faith and practice, Judaism has instead been a religion of active learning and doing. This is demonstrated in spades as one reads through the various theories described and evaluated in this book, where each and every author is deeply committed to Judaism and yet affirms a form of understanding Judaism’s commitment to Jewish law in his or her unique way. The Jewish tradition’s sheer intellectual vibrancy, its wisdom, its moral sensitivity and challenges, and its pluralism – characteristics of it that I had always known and valued — became ever more graphic and present for me as I prepared this book. It has been a real blessing for me to confront these qualities in these writers, renewing my own faith in the Jewish tradition and in its modern adherents to enrich it yet further as we live it and pass it on to the next generation.

What are your hopes for this book?

I hope that many people of many different backgrounds will read this book and will gain from it a first-hand appreciation of the nature of Jewish law and a variety of understandings of how it has developed over time and should be understood and practiced in our own day. Non-Jews will learn from this book both why and how the Jewish tradition, in contrast to many others, has used law as a central element of faith, one that does not replace but rather enhances the life of the spirit. Rabbis and other serious students of Judaism will surely find this book important for their further understanding of the tradition they study and love, but it will also help lay Jews who are serious about their heritage to understand a critical component of it. It will help Jews of all backgrounds not only to understand Jewish law, but to become part of the ongoing effort to make it a critical component of our lives in our time and thus the blessing that God intended that it be for us all:
He established a decree in Jacob, ordained a teaching in Israel,
charging our fathers to make them known to their children
that a future generation might know – children yet to be born –
and in turn tell their children
that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s great deeds,
but observe His commandments. (Psalms 78:5-7)

The teaching of the Lord is perfect, renewing life;
The decrees of the Lord are enduring, making the simple wise;
The precepts of the Lord are just, rejoicing the heart;
The instruction of the Lord is lucid, making the eyes light up.
The fear of the Lord is pure, abiding forever;
The laws of the Lord are true, righteous altogether,
More desirable than gold, than much fine gold,
Sweeter than honey, than drippings of the comb.
(Psalms 19:8-11)