“The halakhic inquiry…does not start out from the point of absolute zero as to sentimental attitudes and value judgments”

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The halakhic inquiry, like any other cognitive theoretical performance, does not start out from the point of absolute zero as to sentimental attitudes and value judgments. There always exists in the mind of the researcher an ethico-axiological background against which the contours of the subject matter in question stand out more clearly. In all fields of human intellectual endeavor there is always an intuitive approach which determines the course and method of the analysis. Not even in exact sciences (particularly in their interpretive phase) is it possible to divorce the human element from the formal aspect. Hence this investigation was also undertaken in a similar subjective mood.

Marc B. Shapiro, “Open Orthodoxy and Its Main Critic, part 1”, The Seforim Blog (8 February 2016) [http://seforim.blogspot.com/2016/02/open-orthodoxy-and-its-main-critic-part.html]

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