David Ellenson, ‘Orthodoxy, Halakhah, and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity’

Originally published in Journal of Jewish Studies 41:2. David Ellenson, Orthodoxy, Halakhah, and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London, 1989. x, 192 pp. $31.00. It is widely acknowledged that the halakhic process—the manner in which decisions in Jewish law are arrived at by the posekim—is often influenced by extra-legal…