Another Thought About Halakha and Linguistics

[debka_notion]

Maybe this is old hat- but it just struck me that a lot of the dispute about halakha and especially how it is seen in the Conservative Movement is very much akin to the linguistic debate between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics. A serious difference of approach seems to go on between those folks who see halakha as prescriptive- and if you don't fit the way it says you should do something, you're wrong, and those who see it as eventually mostly descriptive- this is what people whom we think are good Jews (often meaning the people speaking) do, and if halakha doesn't fit this, then it should change.

Maybe this is just another way of trying to break people into two camps. But I think even as endpoints of a spectrum, it's an interesting idea to explore. Thoughts?

Comments

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

Well, both camps are really descriptive-->prescriptive. There has always been the tension between people who want to force the Bavli's rules on the communities (thus, being descriptive of what's in the Bavli, and hence prescriptive for the future), and the people who want to force the community's own practices on other communities (hence, descriptive of the first community, and prescriptive for other communities).

I suppose Halakhic Anarchists would be entirely descriptive-- halakha is whatever people are doing-- but I can't see how that qualifies, in any way, as "halakha".