On Egalitarianism and Halakhah

I pulled out a somewhat-old issue of Tradition (Summer 2002) to look up an article on stem cell research and realized that I had never finished reading a different article in that issue. So I took the time this morning to read it. The article is "On Egalitarianism and Halakha" by Marc D. Stern. I remember being disappointed that the article seemed too abstract, and that is probably why I never finished it.

Upon re-reading and finishing it, I found the article to be at once eloquent, forceful and convincing, and also confused, impractical and unfocused.

The author argued that egalitarianism, the equality of all people, is a fundamental concept of modern societies and underlies much of what we take for granted in the contemporary world. It has benefited us as Jews greatly and is something we would sorely miss. It is also not going anywhere. It is extremely popular in America and throughout the world, and is considered a fundamental value by all modern courts and governments (even if implemented unevenly). For all that, I give the author a yeyasher kohakha for a job well done.

The author then points out that halakhah is not egalitarian; it is decidely particular.

What to do? Well, since egalitarianism is not merely a trend but a lasting principle of the modern world, we have to change halakhah to be more egalitarian. Not, he is careful to say, willy-nilly changes with total disregard for the sacred. Rather, small changes in customs and rabbinic practices in ways that are consistent with the halakhic process. He is quick to point out that there have been halakhic changes before due to changes in economic and social circumstances: e.g. the herem of Rabbenu Gershom, the increases of dowry and shetar hatzi zakhar for female inheritance, the sale of hametz, and of course the Meiri's attitude towards Christians.

He even gives examples of changes that have taken place: the RCA pre-nuptial agreement and R. Moshe Feinstein's ruling that a Jewish company in America charging interest only to non-Jews is impossible.

However, there is a profound leap of logic in his article. Granted, egalitarianism is important in the world and is here to stay. But who says that we have to absorb it into our world view? Certainly, we have to recognize its importance to the world and frame our interaction with the outside world with that realization prominent in our minds. But why do we have to accept it as a positive and absolute value just because everyone else does? Maybe we should be taking our values from the Torah rather than trying to force the Torah to fit external values. Or, accepting that many times in history we have accepted values from the outside world, we have never done such in an obvious and self-negating way that gives the impression that Torah is secondary to contemporary social values.

In my opinion, calls for revising halakhah based on outside trends in morality are doomed to failure. The changes first have to be un-selfconsciously absorbed into the Orthodox world and, only then, will changes in attitude that yield minor differences in halakhic practice follow suit. It is already occuring. However, attempts to bring it to our attention are counter-productive. When we become self-conscious of outside influence, we instinctively react against it. Let it happen without our recognizing it. Or at least let us pretend not to recognize it.