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Religion and Public Life in the Thought of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik

October 21, 2001 | Yoel Finkelman

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik views religion as a private affair, which occurs in the intimate relations between the I, the Thou, and the Eternal Thou. He consistently denies or de-emphasizes the public or coercive role of Judaism and halakhah. Yet Soloveitchik has trouble justifying his private religion with Jewish tradition and with the relatively expansive self-understanding of halakhah. This trouble is reflected in a number of contradictions about the nature and function of Judaism and halakhah,

The Historic and Contemporary Relationships between Halakhah and Mishpat Hamelukhah

October 30, 1998

This article introduces the Jewish Political Studies Review issue examining traditional sources for building a civil state in a halakhically-acceptable manner, drawing upon the halakhic category of mishpat hamelukhah. Jewish tradition knows two sources of legitimate legislative-judicial-governance activity. Principal among them is the halakhah which is traditionally understood as a direct development from God's covenant with Israel at Sinai. The Bible developed the semi-separated category of mishpat hamelukhah (the law of the kingdom), explicated in Deuteronomy 17:11-20 and I Samuel 8-15, a parallel and semi-separate legal-judicial governance system within the power of the kings and other civil rulers in Israel.