Excerpt from The Theory of Oral Tradition
In my paper on the Scroll of the Law, presented last year to the Central Conference of American Rabbis, I stated my opinion on the purpose of such essays as this. It is not my belief that such investigations shall be regarded as decisions, but they shall from a historical point of view investigate topics which are of immediate practical interest. They shall serve as a guide to the rabbi who wishes to form an opinion of his own on such questions as may be urged upon him to decide. A vote on the subject which is a matter of conscience will never ultimately settle the question. It will, as the history of all religions teaches, sooner tend to dissensions than to harmony. A unity of action is desirable for the sake of proper organization, a unity of thought in all details is an impossibility. Judaism is broad enough to embrace a wide range of different opinions, and we, in tolerating such differences, stand on the historic basis of Judaism, which in the second century proclaimed the fundamental principle that no man shall insist on his opinions, for the fathers of the world did not insist on his opinion. A scientific investigation of a law does not necessarily imply that the practice must accept the results of the investigations. Practice is guided by existing conditions; science knows of no other law than the truth.
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