Word: halakhah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Binding Commandment. Even more important and enduring was the middle- of-the-road view that Rosenzweig took of the Halakhah, the elaborate body of law set down in Jewish tradition. Buber virtually reduced Halakhah to individual inclination, arguing that its prescriptions were useful only to a Jew who found them personally fulfilling. But Rosenzweig saw the law as something stronger, not so much a set of rules as a universally binding commandment to seize every opportunity to perform a good work, or mitzvah. Laws that did not serve such good ends in a particular historical setting simply no longer applied...
Separate Worship. Like Catholicism, Judaism has traditionally treated women ambiguously. In the home, the Jewish mother is charged with considerable religious responsibility. She must not only preserve the ritual of celebrations but also see to it that her husband studies Halakhah, the body of Jewish religious law. Jewishness itself is determined by whether one is born of a Jewish mother, not of a Jewish father. Ancient Israel boasted seven women prophets, heroines such as Judith and Esther, and a judge, Deborah...