A Great Jewish Historian’s Controversial Analysis of American Judaism, Three Decades Later

One of the leading scholars of medieval Jewish law and the scion of a great rabbinic dynasty, Haym Soloveitchik may be best known for his 1994 essay, “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy,” which analyzes the changes that he witnessed in American Orthodox Judaism during his own lifetime. Put simply, halakhah was for the older generation a “mimetic” tradition, passed on when children imitate the practices of their parents, grandparents, and teachers. But in the wake of the momentous changes of the 20th century, it became a textual tradition, whereby people look to the holy books and the scholars who interpret them for guidance in everyday behavior.