Book Review:
Imposing Black on White on Matters that are Gray
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Gray Matter: Discourses in Contemporary Halacha
Rabbi Chaim Jachter with Ezra Frazer
Teaneck, NJ, 2000
Rabbi Chaim Jachter’s intriguing title for his new work on significant Halachic issues remains
enigmatic. He does not explain its connotation. We may, therefore, take the liberty of interpretation.
Halacha often confronts areas that are “gray.”
Yet, by its very nature, Halacha, as a legal system and
code of law, must strive to be black and white. Rabbi Jachter has selected several such “gray areas”
and attempted to show how the absolute world of Halacha deals with these often ambiguous
concerns. In the main, Rabbi Jachter has succeeded. For this accomplishment, he deserves our
commendation and admiration.
Rabbi Jachter displays a clear grasp of the Halachic process. He shows us how the system progresses from Talmudic sources, through the Rishonim (medieval sages) and classic Poskim (codes and responsa), to contemporary authorities. Both Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt of Memphis and Rabbi Mordechai Willig of Riverdale recognize and laud Rabbi Jachter’s acumen in their haskomos (approbations) to Gray Matter. Readers will undoubtedly come away with a new appreciation for a broad range of Halachic issues. These span a gamut beginning from “The Power of Prenuptial Agreements” - with its analysis of all the Halachic problems facing contemporary Poskim intent on designing agreements that work - and “Conditional Marriage” - with an overview of the 19th century attempts to introduce conditions in the Kiddushin process - and other Even ha’Ezer (marriage, divorce and personal status issues); Choshen Mishpat (monetary matters, including essays on economic competition and copyright law); and Orach Chaim (daily religious obligations, including extensive discussions of the laws of eruvin and kitniyot - the permissibility of legumes on Pesach). There is also a special section of issues pertaining to the Land of Israel, and more.
We should note that, in common with many writers who are talmidim muvhakim (major disciples) of a specific sage or school of thought, Rabbi Jachter tends to cite and favor opinions rendered by authorities associated with Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush Etzion) and Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan (Yeshiva University), his alma maters. The array of their mentors’ Halachic perspectives will particularly please readers who readily identify with these schools presented in Gray Matter.
It is unfortunate, however, that Rabbi Jachter has not chosen to include an introductory essay explaining his methodology. The Halachic decision-making process has evolved over the last half-century. In the past, psak halacha (Halachic decisions) were rendered, mostly, in correspondence, leaving not just accurate records of the psak, but, importantly, of the process by which the posek (decisor) reached his conclusions. Widespread use of telephones - even for long distance and trans-oceanic communication - and the affordability of personal travel to meet a posek in person, have wrought a significant change. We are witnesses to a major trend towards verbal information and anecdotal evidence. This is particularly true concerning authorities such as Rabbi Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik zt”l (often cited in Gray Matter). Rabbi Soloveitchik was famously averse to issuing written decisions. Diverse versions of his statements transmitted by various talmidim compound the problems arising from the dearth of written material. Some analysis of the nature and quality of the oral transmission process is, therefore, essential. Perhaps at some future date Rabbi Jachter will do us the favor of explaining how he deals with the complexities inherent in the realm of oral opinions.
To be sure, afficionados of the Halachic world have their own ideas and notions as to the hierarchy of authority within that milieu. Some of those perceptions are near universal; some are not. Rabbi Jachter, in publishing Gray Matter, a work that introduces its readers to many contemporary Poskim and their differing opinions, bears the responsibility to divulge some idea of the hierarchy of authority within the Halachic world. To leave that ranking to those “in the know” avoids controversy. But this book, we must assume, is intended to educate not only the “insiders,” but also the laity.
Were Rabbi Jachter to have discussed every issue from source to ruling on its own merits (i.e.,
which positions are solidly sustained by Talmudic and other primary sources and which are not), then
the omission of some hierarchy of authority would be more excusable. This, however, is not always
the case. Rabbi Jachter often informs us of the perspectives of various authorities and then leaves
us “on our own.” Not knowing their stature, “outsiders” are left to guess if an opinion is authoritative
or not. Is there no way to lessen this “grayness?” Rabbi Jachter, himself obviously an erudite
scholar,
refers to most authorities he quotes with the honorific “Rav,” but ordinarily makes no
distinctions or gradations in Gray Matter. The most blatant exceptions to this rule are Rabbi
Jachter’s references to Rabbis Emanuel Rackman and Moses Morgenstern in his discussion of the
procedures which the pair employ to annul marriages. Rabbi Jachter accords these individuals only
the honorific of “rabbi” - in a contradistinction to their antagonists (viz., Rav J. David Bleich and
Rav Ovadia Yosef - see, for example, p. 58). The implication is obvious: The pair of rabbis is not
“in the same league” (my colloquialism) as the “rabbonim” (plural of “rav”).
A case in point is Rabbi Jachter’s discussion (p. 189) of a leniency concerning “zig-zags” of up to 22.5 degrees in the overhead wire of an eruv. In my opinion, eruvin that contain such “zig-zags” are invalid. Rabbi Jachter’s presents a significant kullah based on an oral transmission of one of Rabbi Solovetichik’s students and the brief citation of a contemporary Posek. The “opposition” is represented by “hearsay” concerning the practice of a living Posek (could Rabbi Jachter not simply have phoned him up and confirmed this position?) and reference in a footnote to my work The Contemporary Eruv. While this is not the place to discuss this issue in depth, I believe the preponderance of Halachic opinion, including the Chazon Ish zt”l (whose opinion, Rabbi Jachter tells us on p. 172, bears unique weight in the area of eruvin), is against this leniency. Rabbi Jachter surely realizes that Gray Matter may come to serve as a resource for many Rabbonim in their quest for Halachic benchmarks. It would have been judicious to present the full background of the sources and discuss the authority of oral versus written sources of Psak Halacha, as well as the relative weight accorded to different Poskim.
A minor quibble with the author is his treatment of certain issues that are not readily susceptible to the black and white of Halacha. These issues include essential components of Musar (ethics or morals) and Machashava (Jewish thought and philosophy). Examples of this type of issue are the sections on “Should Yeshivah Students Serve in the Israeli Army?” and “The Torah’s View of Gambling.” These discussions are simply not comparable to the wonderful presentation of, say, “Milking Cows on Shabbat.” Rabbi Jachter is entitled to include whatever issues he so pleases in a book that he himself writes. Nevertheless, it seems that in such areas we might expect a much broader excursion into the “gray” area that we commonly call “Hashkafa.” Granted, a broader analysis may compound perplexities. Nevertheless, Rabbi Jachter might have surveyed the writings and statements of many more great thinkers, and have compiled many more sources, in dealing with these far-reaching ideological matters.
Despite these critiques, Rabbi Jachter’s contribution to the field of contemporary Halachic discourse is very edifying and very easy to read as well. Readers interested in educating themselves in diverse areas including some of the most pertinent Halachic issues of our day, will find Gray Matter an engaging, informative and scholarly work.