Abstract
Fischer writes as an Orthodox rabbi completely committed to halakha. I write as a Reform rabbi who has great admiration for Jewish law but does not share his absolute commitment to it. In fact, I had the opportunity to conduct a wedding in Israel last year outside the strictures of halakha. The bride was a young woman who had completed a two-year state-sanctioned Orthodox course of study and converted to Judaism in Israel. She then fell in love with a secular Israeli. While her halakhic status as a Jew was not in doubt, she was prohibited from marrying the groom because he was of priestly lineage, and, as a kohen, he was forbidden by traditional Jewish law from marrying a female convert (giyoret).