Judaism and collective life : self and community in the religious kibbutz

Examining the relationship between Judaism as a religious culture and kibbutz life, this is a ground-breaking work in the research of Judaism.

The book takes as its point of departure the historical fact that it was Orthodox pioneers of German origin, in contrast to their Eastern European counterparts, who successfully developed religious kibbutz life.

Employing sociological concepts and methods, the author goes on to examine the correlations between two evolutionary phases in kibbutz development and two modes of Judaism: the rational Halkhic and the emotive Hassidic modes.

In doing this, he exposes the relationship between two diverse dispositions towards divinity - the transcendent and the immanent - and two diverse modes of the self and their related communities.

A unifying framework is provided by Joseph B. Soloveitchik's typology of the two Adams of Creation, and the work also draws on the sociological theories of Max Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Parsons and Peter Berger. This innovative and insightful work will be of essential interest to scholars of the sociology of religion, Jewish studies, modern Jewish history and Israel's national history, and will also interest those more broadly engaged with theology and religious studies.