Jewish Religious Law: A Progressive Perspective

by John D. Rayner

Overview

This is the first major work on the interrelationship between Liberal Judaism and Rabbinic Law (Halachah) ever to have been produced in Britain, and in Europe since the nineteenth century. It represents a plea for a positive yet forthrightly critical approach to Rabbinic Law in general aswell as to a variety of specific topics such as the language of prayer, the status of women, medical confidentiality, euthanasia, Jewish identity, contraception, divorce, and Jewish territorial rights in Palestine/Israel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571819758
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	05/01/1998
Series:	Progressive Judaism Today , #3
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1370L (what's this?)

About the Author

John D. Rayner (1924-2005) graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. He was Emeritus Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, Hon. Life-President of the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues, and Lecturer in Liturgy at Leo Baeck College, London.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Glossary

PART I: THE PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 1. Progressive Judaism
Chapter 2. Progressive Judaism Fifty Years after the Holocaust

PART II: A PROGRESSIVE APPROACH TO HALACHAH

Chapter 3. Halachah and Aggadah: Law and Lore in Judaism
Chapter 4. The Need for a New Approach to Halachah
Chapter 5. Rethinking our Relationship with Halachah
Chapter 6. Towards a Progrssive Halachah
Chapter 7. Between Antinomianism and Conservatism
Chapter 8. A Genuinely Progressive Halachah

PART III: SOME HALACHIC PROBLEMS

Chapter 9. Praying with Kavvanah
Chapter 10. The Language of Prayer
Chapter 11. The Posture of Prayer
Chapter 12. Women and Worship
Chapter 13. On Seeing Halley's Comet
Chapter 14. Returning a Scroll to its Donor
Chapter 15. Recycling Old Prayerbooks
Chapter 16. Medical Confidentiality
Chapter 17. Organ Transplantation
Chapter 18. A Matter of Life and Death
Chapter 19. Euthanasia
Chapter 20. Burial of Progressive Proselyte in Orthodox Cemetery
Chapter 21. Jewish Identity
Chapter 22. Conception and Contraception
Chapter 23. From Unilateralism to Recipocity: A Short History of Jewish Divorce
Chapter 24. The Land, the Law and the Liberal Conscience

Notes and Acknowledgements
Bibliography