David Hartman, a noted Orthodox rabbi and founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, insists that Modern Orthodox Judaism is, in some respects, frozen in suspended animation. It refuses to grow, despite new circumstances, moral imperatives, and logic—and, consequently, many people are hurt. A prime example is its failure to solve the problem of the agunot, wives of husbands who refuse to give a Jewish divorce. The rabbis uphold the view that the Bible allows only husbands to initiate marriages and divorces. This gives husbands the power to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars for a divorce, or spitefully refuse divorce under any circumstance, leaving the women unable to remarry, while their husbands can under certain conditions.
Hartman writes that the Torah teaches love of neighbor and stresses love of the stranger thirty-six times. Yet, he asserts, the rabbis of the yeshiva world worship halakha, the Jewish legal system, instead of God. They teach that the further removed Jews are from Mount Sinai, the weaker their intellect and their ability to understand truths. According to this view, Jews must never reject the views of earlier rabbis, and must unthinkingly accept what they demand.
This thinking leads to many human tragedies. Thus, a Russian immigrant who always thought he was Jewish and followed Jewish law, served in the Israeli army as a commander and was killed defending Israel, but was not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery because a rabbi discovered that his grandmother wasn’t Jewish. Thus, a middleaged Jewish man, a kohen, a descendant of the priestly line, was refused permission to marry the woman he loved, who had long ago converted to Judaism out of love for the religion, because of the ancient rule that a kohen cannot marry a convert. Thus, women are still excluded from many Jewish practices, forcing Hartman to lament, “Could I worship a God who considered half of the Jewish community to be not fully human?”
Hartman writes that Maimonides, unlike the rabbis who worship halakha, taught: “Halakha plays an important, but secondary, role in the religious process.” Halakha is not the goal; it is the means to attain the goal of individual and social growth. Maimonides stressed that God placed eyes in the front of faces to encourage people to look forward, not behind. Thus, humans must assume “the role of interpreting God’s law for our time and place,” and stop hurting people.
Hartman’s worldview is accepted by many, though certainly not all, Orthodox rabbis. Readers will find his ideas eye-opening and very persuasive.