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A New Building on Old and Solid Foundations
Elsa Pariente

"One of the first problems which is often raised is what is sometimes called the sclerosis of religious Judaism." This is how Rabbi Josy Eisenberg in his article "Le Judaisme a reinventer?" (L'Arche: No. 144, June-July, 1969) begins the presentation of his preoccupation with present day Judaism. This is a thesis which, unfortunately Christians have upheld for centuries:

Judaism: a legalist religion, set, hardened, etc. Would a rabbi of the standing of Josy Eisenberg carry grist to this partisan mill? The rest 'of the article quickly enlightens the reader. In fact, the closure of the Talmud, about the fifth century Josy Eisenberg shows how Judaism in the course of its many centuried history knew how to be both dynamic and inventive, up to the time of of the Christian era. Then the system of "hedges" which were intended to protect the Torah, became so complex and meticulous that traditional Judaism (the word "orthodox" has been expressly avoided) inexorably cut the Jews off from a world in evolution and maintained them in a Middles Ages type of life, in spite of the scientific, sociological, political and cultural upheavals of the last centuries.

Problems which have been raised in the diaspora, however, have given rise to reform movements. The most advanced (at the present time) is the Jewish Liberal movement which began 150 years ago. The plan of this movement, reported by Rabbi Andre Zaoui in No. 19 of Nouveaux Cahiers has aroused great enthusiasm, but also, great polemics with Orthodox Judaism. The last example, that of the conversion in Israel of Mme Zeidman, almost started a ministerial crisis. In order to avoid this at a difficult time in Israel's history, Mme Zeidman, a Christian, first converted to Liberal Judaism, was reconverted to Orthodox Judaism, because the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem declared conversions invalid, if they are not in accordance with Halakhah — Jewish Orthodox law.

Without going to these extremes, tension exists within Orthodox Judaism itself where two tendencies are apparent: the one conservative, demanding that every iota of Talmudic practice should be maintained; the other, interpreted in Italy by Rabbi Elia Samuele Arton ("1887-1965: La Vie nouvelle d'Israel"), in France by Georges Hertz ("Pour un 'Aggiornamento' du Judaisme": L'Arche, No. 131 and No. 135, 1968) and Rabbi Josy Eisenberg (the article quoted above and "Plaidoyer pour le Talmud": L'Arche, No. 147, 1969). All three ask for the renovation of Judaism, and for this reason, question Talmudic legislation. Rabbi Josy Einsenberg specifies, moreover, that he wants to speak of Talmudic legislation as it is explained in the Shulchan Aruch, the code established by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century. It is not a question of "contesting eitherthe legitimacy or the authenticity of the values and modes of thought of the Talmud", source of Jewish wisdom which must be incessantly drawn upon. But, he remarks that the world has changed, and goes on changing: therefore problems arise today which did not exist at the time the Talmud was completed, thus obviously, the Talmud cannot solve them.

Three attitudes, therefore, are possible in this modern world: to go beyond, to ignore or to deny the problems, in other words, to go on living in a deliberately chosen and willed ghetto thus risking formalism, warping, and, in a word, a fanaticism which kills real religious feeling. Or, on the other hand, completely abandon all Jewish practice, loose the taste for Mitsvot and end in agnosticism pure and simple — the final stage of progressive de-judaizing. Josy Eisenberg considers it "indispensable to chose a new way", and it is on the Talmud itself that he bases his proposal for innovation. The Talmud, in fact, is a tradition and not a collection of dogmas. Now "Jewish tradition has allowed all minority opinions to be expressed... Still more: when two famous schools brought radically opposed judgments to innumerable subjects, the Talmud... (proclaimed): `Both are words of the living God'...". That is what the Talmud "should never cease to have been: a living word, open, dynamic", concludes Rabbi J. Eisenberg. In this perspective, the "new way" chosen by J. Eisenberg will certainly never be that of what is easiest pure and simple. He avoids "detrimental toleration" as much as "abusive exigence", and, speaking as an Orthodox Rabbi he does not want this renovation of Judaism to take place in anarchy, but always in accordance with the principles of the Talmud, that is to say through a Sanhedrin. Research would bear both on the clarification of fundamental concepts of the theology of Judaism and on the harmonization of the Mitsvot. This would restore Judaism's image in a re-discovered unity.