The Way of Torah

by Jacob Neusner

Published December 1974
This text provides a conceptual framework for the study of Judaism. The author defines and interprets the Jewish experience by considering it as an "ecosystem": an interrelationship between a religious way of viewing life and the world, and the historical and social situation of the people who view the world and live life in accord with the teachings of their religion. Within this framework, material on holidays, beliefs and practices is presented as expressing, in the author's worlds, "a single and whole conception of the world, of the human being, of the character of humanity, and of the supernatural meaning of the Jewish people".