“My Children Have Defeated Me! My Children Have Defeated Me!”: Halakhah and Aggadah in Conservative/Masorti Decision-Making

Abstract

Despite the vast research on Jewish law (halakhah), fairly little has been done to analyze the contemporary responsa literature, particularly in the United States and particularly within the Conservative Jewish movement. These responsa can be defined in two ways: by their methodology and by their outcome. In this paper, I begin by reviewing the origins and development of the halakhah and the power of rabbis within this halakhic system. I then describe the Conservative movement and particularly its halakhic outlook—that is, how the Conservative movement has defined its own relationship to Jewish law and how Conservative responsa utilize that body of law. Finally, by examining contemporary Conservative responsa, I introduce a novel approach to analyzing contemporary halakhah. This approach separates methodology, categorizing it as “systematic” or “aggadic,” from halakhic outcomes, which I categorize as “traditional” or “progressive” depending on the extent to which they advocate halakhic change. I conclude that nearly all responsa use a blend of systematic and aggadic methodologies and that the methodology deployed has little to no bearing on the progressiveness of the halakhic outcome.