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]

or a descriptive one (in that I'm ignoring an authority in light of what I think makes sense)?

What does that have anything to do with being descriptive?

(BTW, my own attitude toward the fish/meat thing is that because (a) the entire idea of the "danger" of eating meat-scented bread with fish is medical advice, which doesn't make any sense to our medical understanding, and (b) the Mogein Avrohom says that "in our day, there isn't really so much סכנה in this", I would rather not keep the practice. However, if I didn't keep it-- or even talked a lot about my desire to not keep it, rather than keeping my mouth shut-- my friends would think I was krum, so I avoideq permitting or talking about the practice. I don't think that there's anything prescriptive or descriptive in this attitude.)

However, there are definitely prescriptive and descriptive books about halokho. Example of a prescriptive book: Any book-of-responsa, commentary-on-Shulhon `Orukh, or the like. Example of a descriptive book: Daniel Sperber's מנהגי ישראל; to a slightly lesser extent, Binyomin Hamburger's שרשי מנהג אשכנז. These books focus on the "minhog" aspect inherent in halokho, and describe practices as they exist in various communities, and try to explain how each of them developed, while referencing the Talmud and codes in every relevant place. Fascinatng books.