Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Modern Orthodoxy

The essay that forms the core of this book is an attempt to understand the developments that have occurred in Orthodox Jewry in America in the last seventy years, and to analyse their implications. The prime change is what is often described as 'the swing to the right', a marked increase in
ritual stringency, a rupture in patterns of behaviour that has had major consequences not only for Jewish society but also for the nature of Jewish spirituality. For Haym Soloveitchik, the key feature at the root of this change is that, as a result of migration to the 'New Worlds' of England, the
US, and Israel and acculturation to its new surroundings, American Jewry-indeed, much of the Jewish world- had to reconstruct religious practice from normative texts: observance could no longer be transmitted mimetically, on the basis of practices observed in home and street. In consequence,
behaviour once governed by habit is now governed by rule. This new edition allows the author to deal with criticisms raised since the essay, long established as a classic in the field, was originally published, and enables readers to gain a fuller perspective on a topic central to today's Jewish
world and its development.

Author: Haym Soloveitchik
Publisher: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in Ass
Published: 12/01/2021
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.80h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781906764388


Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2022

About the Author

Haym Soloveitchik is the Merkin Family Research Professor at Yeshiva University, New York, and the former director of the School of Jewish Studies at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also taught at the Sorbonne and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales in Paris. He has published books in Hebrew on pawnbroking and usury, Jewish involvement in the medieval wine trade, and the use of responsa as a historical source.