Q&A: Yoav Sorek, Religious Renewal, and Column 130
Yoav Sorek, Religious Renewal, and Column 130
Question
Hello and greetings, Rabbi Michi. I came across a new initiative from Yoav Sorek’s beit midrash, about religious-secular Jewish renewal.
Answer
These are completely opposite initiatives. In my opinion, “secular Judaism” is an empty concept. Aggadah has no relevant content, and certainly not uniquely Jewish content. In short, this is just another attempt to define whatever so-and-so thinks as “Judaism.”
Discussion on Answer
There is no question that needs to be left for the messianic era. Any question that arises can be ruled on, including derashot and so on. Without a Sanhedrin it won’t be binding with formal authority, but there is substantive authority, and if it’s correct then it’s correct. The problem is only with changing existing laws. There, not everything is possible.
Thank you. What about the last question? Are there questions that you leave for the messianic era / the Sanhedrin and see as an unchangeable reality, part of the “rules of the game,” or in your view should that not stop first-order halakhic ruling on all relevant questions? (Deriving laws from verses, and in general the authorities that the Sanhedrin has to shape Jewish law directly rather than in a roundabout, overly clever way.)