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162 Accommodation Aceldama

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

tions arc mentioned in the Bible ns well as in tlie rabbiniciil literature. Aeeonliiij; to K.. xii. is. and xiii,, the Passover was 1<> be kept annually on the fourteenth day of the first nionth, at even; but aeeordinjr he sreoud Passover was to Niun. ix. 1-14. wlun eelebralril in the wilderness, cerlaiu I

Passover in Duplicate.

men were prevented from keeping

it,

to llieir bein,i;detile(l by eontaet with the dead. l)n inquiring what they should do, a later Pas-sover was instituted for the bencHt of any one who had been ))revenl('d from keeping it al the ordinary time in the

owing

month, and Ihiswastolie observed on the fourday of the second month. In eonfcirmily with this Aeeoniniodalion of the Law in iteeuliar eireumstanees. King Ile/.ekiali, at the beginning of his reign, eelebrated the great Passover in the second month, being unable to eomi)lete the sanetilieation lirst

ticiilh

of the

Temple

at the regular season of the feast (II

t'hroii. x.x.).

Another instance is that of Prosbul (deiived from the words T^'of i^w'/i/v, "before the court I herewith deposit"), instituted by llillel the Elder (see AiiitoCi.vTiu.N oi-' L.ws). Finding, tinder the Debts changed circumstances of his time, 'Agunot. that the Mosaic law, which canceled all debts in the Sabbatical year, had proved disiidvantageous rather than benelicial to the poor (since no one would lend them money lest the claim might be repudiated at the approach of the Sabbatical year), Hillel moditied the law .so that the Sabbathyearshouldnotaunul the indebtedness, provided the creditor transferred it to the court by a document termed Prosbid. Another example of Accoininodatiou of the Law concerns the evidence of an absent husband's death, intended to permit the wife to remarry, and thus avoid the stigma of being an 'AguN.H or deserted wife. In all civil and criminal casi's, and in all matrimonial alfairs. it was an cslablisbed rule of the law that everything must lie proved by two witnesses (Deut. .xix. 15), but in this instance the testimony of a single witness was considered siitlicient even the testimony of near relatives, and of persons otherwise regarded as incompetent witnesses by the rabbinical law, might be admitted to establish the death of the absent husband. Tlie Accommodation of the Law in this case is justitied by the rabbis for the reason that "some allowance is to be made in favor of the deserted woman, who, otherwise, would have to remain forever in unhappy widowhood" (Yeb. m,i. Git. Za). The following example will ilbistrate the mitigation of the rigor of a traditional law in order to adjust it to jiractical life. From the IiOcomotion inpniction to the manna-gatherers,



on the Sabbath,

Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his ]daee on the

"

seventh day" (Ex. xvi. 2tt). rabbinic tradition derived for all future generations the two following prohibitions: (1) No Israelite shall on the Sabbath day go farther than 2.000 ctdiils from the place of his abode, the so-called Sabbath journey. (2) No Israelite shall carry any object froiu private to jiublic premises, or vice versa, on the Sabbath. These two restrictive laws led. of course, to great inconvenience in practical life, for. through their operation, almost all freedom of locomotion on the Sabbath was prohibited. In order to lessen the inconvenience caused by these two injunctions, the ral>bis introduced certain legal formalities termed 'eriihi- tchntnin, 'eriihe hazerot. and 'rrnbe. »/«*"»< (connection of boundaries, premises, and approaches), by which a Sabbath journey could be extended to 4,000 cubits, and certain public premises be consid-

162

ered as having been changed into private conmiou premises, from which it was permitted to carry objects to adjoining private houses and vice versa

(Mishnah Er.

i.-iv.).

Again, in fixing the .Ikwisii C.M.KND.vn care was taken to arrange it in such a manner that the tenth of the month of Tishri slKmld never fall either on a Friday or on a Sunday, because it would, in some respects, be very inconvenient to eelebnite the Day of Atonement either immedialelv before or inuue-

weekly Sabbath

diately afler the

(H, 11. SOk).

To pre-

vent such an inconvenient occurrence, it was detcrmineil that in .some years ei her a day should be added to the regular nundier of (lays (if the preceding month of Uesliwan, or a day taken from the regular number in the month of Kislew. Although the ancient rabbis were in general very stri<'t where ritual and ceremonial laws were concerned, they did not hesitate to accommodate these laws to times and circuinslances. The following are .some of t he priucijiles they established: Hefer" Ye shall therering to the passage in Lev. xviii. I

.">,

keep

my

statutes, and if a man do, he shall live in shall lire in the laws of God, fore

judgments; which them." they say, "man but not (//<• by means of

Yonia, H'tlj). " Where danger, any laws may be set aside, except those concerning

them" (Sanh.

Sabbath for human

Man, not

Man

my

74rt



life is in

idolatry, incest, and murder" (Yoma, In easi'sof illnessand inany, even

for

Sabbath.

V^in).

the remotest, danger, a deviation from the strict observance of the precepts relating to the Sabbath is permitt<'d (Mishnah Yoma, viii. 0). "The Sabbath is delivered into your hand, not you into the hand of the Sabbath" (Mek. to Ki Tissa", p. 110, ed. Weiss; Yoma. 8o/<). " Y'ou may desecrate one Sabbath in order to be able to keep many Sabbaths" (Jlek., /.-•.



Shall.

1.^)14).

Likewise, concerning the fast of the Day of Atonement, though it was regarded as of the utmost importance and consequently observed with extreme strictness, the rabbinical law easily accommodated itself to circumstances. If, for instance, on that day an bi^ attacked by the disease of D1D713 (craving hunger), he is allowed to eat even that food which isotherwisestrictly forbidden (Mishnah Yoma, viii. 6). In case of illness, too, the patient may break the fast of that day, cither when he himself or his

Israelite

physician finds

it neccs.siiry

(Yoma,

83(.

The priiiei|ile of acconnnodalion is applied also in modern .ludaism by the advocates of moderate reform. Under the protection of rabbinical authority they seek by various modifications to accommodate the ritual and liturgical laws to present condificms This endeavor is, however, disand circumstances. aiiproved by Ww advocates of strict orthodoxy, who rigorously and tenaciously adhere to every inherited religious form and custom, even though it be incompatible with modern thought and modern needs and conditions. Neither docs the princijile of accommodation satisfy those who advocate a radical reform of religious laws and institutions. The advocates of moderate reform hold that the principle of accommodation helps to reconcile the present with the past, to harmonize ancestral laws and institutions with the changed conditions of our time: that it prevents a breach of the vuiity in Israid; and that slowly, but surel.v, it introduces manv essential improvements into.tewish religious lite and institutions, thus exercising a wholesome iuduence upon the development of Judaism.

BiBLiotiRAPHY



LOW, GesammelU Schriften,

.

17 et gcq.

M. M.