WHAT IS THE UTJS POSITION ON CONTEMPORARY RABBINIC AUTHORITY?
“If a case is too baffling for you to decide,” says the Torah, you are to follow the advice of contemporary legal authorities; moreover, “you must not deviate from the verdict that they announce to you either to the right or to the left” (Deuteronomy 17:8,11). Many within Orthodoxy, based on these verses, espouse a dogma sometimes called Daas Torah (understood as “THE Torah view”). This dogma obliges every observant Jew to defer uncritically to the pronouncements of specific rabbinic leaders (Gedolim) on all matters of public policy. Though identified primarily with “right wing” Orthodoxy, the belief in Daas Torah has influenced much of Modern Orthodoxy as well. By contrast, the UTJ affirms the pivotal role of each mara d’atra (local rabbinic authority) in halakhic decision-making. Any rulings by those considered Gedolim must be judged on the merits of the arguments advanced, not on the prestige or charisma of the scholar advancing them. In the Talmud, R. Joshua ben Korchah interprets
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- WHAT IS THE UTJS POSITION ON CONTEMPORARY RABBINIC AUTHORITY?
