Halacha influenced by socio-economics

Halakha and History


Rabbi Reuven Hammer
Jerusalem Post


The Tu B'shvat celebrations are over now. Trees have been planted, fruit =
has been eaten and a certain amount of environmental consciousness has =
entered our minds, though probably not enough. None of that, of course, =
has anything to do with the original meaning of Tu B'shvat as found in =
the Mishnah, "The new year of the trees is on the first of Shvat =
according to Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says - the fifteenth of the month." =
That is, the year of counting the cycle of tithing the fruits begins on =
that date. The metamorphosis of the day only illustrates the way that =
observances grow and change with the times.

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On Tu B'shvat two associations automatically come to my mind. The first =
goes back to pre-State days when I was a child in Hebrew School. Every =
Tu B'shvat we were given fruit from Palestine to eat. It was called =
bokser. The problem was that it was truly inedible. I don't know how it =
arrived in America and how long it had taken to get there, but it was as =
hard as a rock and if you did manage to chew it without breaking your =
teeth it tasted a bit like cardboard. I suspect that bokser did more =
than anything else to discourage aliyah. Years later when I tasted it in =
Israel, fresh off the tree, I was shocked at how good it actually was.

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The other association is from my student days at JTS Rabbinical School. =
I was given an essay to read written by the brilliant Talmudist =
Professor Louis Ginzberg, who unfortunately passed away my first year =
there so I had no chance to study with him. Ginzberg was undoubtedly the =
greatest rabbinics scholar of that and many other generations. His =
magnum opus, Legends of the Jews, is an unrivaled masterpiece. =
Incidentally, it was translated into English from his Germanic =
manuscript by the young Henrietta Szold who was somewhat infatuated with =
him and was the first woman given permission to sit in on rabbinical =
school classes at the Seminary. Obviously she was not enrolled or =
eligible for ordination.=20

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The essay I read was entitled "The Significance of the Halachah for =
Jewish History." It had been delivered in Hebrew as a lecture at the =
Hebrew University in Jerusalem during the academic year 1929-30. "My =
chief purpose," Ginzberg said, "is to demonstrate that the development =
of the halakhah.is not a creation of the House of Study but an =
expression of life itself." His theme was the influence of =
socio-economic factors on the development of Jewish Law and Tu B'shvat =
was one of the primary examples that Ginzberg brought to prove his =
thesis.

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Ginzberg demonstrated that the controversies between the School of =
Hillel and the School of Shammai were the result of the differences in =
the socio-economic status of these two groups. The Hillelites =
represented the lower social classes while the Shammaites were wealthy =
patricians. Ginzberg goes through an entire list of the conflicts =
between the law as interpreted by Hillel and that of Shammai and =
demonstrates that in each case it reflects the differing needs and views =
of the upper and the lower classes. The last one he deals with has to do =
with the date of the New Year of the Trees which, as noted, according to =
Shammai was the first of Shvat and according to Hillel was the fifteenth =
of Shvat. Why? "There is no need to indulge in fanciful theorizing, for =
the simplest explanation is that the rich possessed good and fruitful =
fields on which the trees began to blossom a week or two before the =
blossoming of the trees on the meager and unyielding soil of the poor."

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Incidentally, Ginzberg also contends that various rabbinic enactments =
against Gentiles in the Land of Israel were not based on Biblical law =
but on the specific problems of that particular generation, faced with =
threats against Jewish settlement in the land because the land was =
controlled by the Romans.=20

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Subsequent studies of Jewish Law by such scholars as Prof. Yaakov Katz =
and many others have continued this line, demonstrating that halakhic =
decisions in the Middle Ages as well as those in antiquity were =
frequently made on the basis the needs of the specific community. More =
often than not the realities of life and the need for the community to =
survive economically, politically and socially determined what was =
permitted and what was forbidden according to Jewish Law.=20

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As Ginzberg wrote concerning the Pharisees, "They did not avoid dealing =
with the questions that contemporary life presented and solving them =
according to the needs of the day." Halakha is not static and never has =
been. It has always reacted to the needs of the people and the =
conditions of the time. In Israel above all places it is crucial that we =
recognize that a halakha that does not take history and changing =
conditions into account and that does not demonstrate flexibility is a =
dead letter which cannot fulfill the Torah's command "and you shall live =
by them" (Leviticus 18:5).