The TRADITION podcast continues to explore topics from our symposium on the 25th anniversary of Prof. Haym Soloveitchik’s “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” Soloveitchik’s essay was a rare case of a work of scholarship having a breakthrough to the popular life and imagination of a religious community. But, like most classics, “Rupture and Reconstruction” is known mostly for a boiled-down version of its famous central thesis, and for a few choice terms or concepts such as “mimesis” and “text culture.” It may not even have been read by many who nevertheless have been informed by it, use its ideas to interpret communal phenomenon, or to advance an argument or agenda.

To help us better understand “Rupture and Reconstruction” and the and theories behind it, Jeffrey Saks sat down with Adam Ferzifger, a social and intellectual historian and one of the contributors to our symposium. He provides us with a valuable “Rupture and Reconstruction” primer.

Professor Adam S. Ferziger is Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with Derekh Erez Movement in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar-Ilan University, and Co-Convener of the Oxford Summer Institute for Modern and Contemporary Judaism.