Conversion In Israel and In The Diaspora

Over the years there have been a few poskim who see the establishment of The State of Israel and subsequent Zionist achievements as a "game changer" in terms of how we understand halacha - at least on some level.

Rav Chaim David Halevi comes to mind in terms of his Piskei Halacha related to saying Nachem in 9 Av after the Six Day War and on the Halachot of redeeming Israeli soldiers held in captivity.

Rav Unterman's Psak related to Police work on Shabbat in The State of Israel is another example.

More on all of these at another time.

For now, I want to call your attention to an amazing psak from Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

Follow this link to learn how the Establishment of the State of Israel

Rabbi Shlomo Goren

on how Israel changes the notion of Kabbalat HaMitzvot. I have also included a few pages from a wonderful new book by David Ellenson and Daniel Gordis (I highly Recommend it) called Pledges of Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth - Twentieth -Century Orthodox Responsa.









Seeing Halacha this way is one of the clearest ways to show that Halacha is a living entity and that it can respond to changing historical circumstances.