Authors: Aharon Lichtenstein
ISBN-13: 9780881256680, ISBN-10: 0881256684
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
Date Published: March 2003
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Where its predecessor dwelt primarily upon the content, mode, and practitioners of Torah study, this volume focuses upon issuessome theoretical, others pragmatic; some current, other timelesswhich concern the practice and implementation of Torah. It opens with an inquiry into whether, and to what extent, Halakhah recognizes the validity and value of an ethic which, in some sense , lies beyond its scope. This is followed by two essaysfocused upon events in Israel but of more general significance, as wellwhich deal with the character and bounds of Jewish polity. Tangentially related is the subject of the next chapterstraddling the communal and the personalregarding the parameters of tolerance. The next several chapters treat more purely personal topicsresponse to suffering, Shabbat prayer, and shemittahand they are followed by discussions of aspects of the sensitive areas of conversion, abortion and the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, commingled with two essays, more sociologically oriented, on Jewish self-identification and communal service, and an exchange concerning Baruch Goldstein. These are, in turn, followed by two chapters focused upon modern or centrist Orthodoxy, particularly; and the volume concludes with a series of responses to major questions posed in various symposia, in which participants were asked, descriptively and prescriptively, both to evaluate the current Jewish scene and to chart a suggested course for its future direction.