Leon Wiener Dow

Towards the end of his life, already paralyzed, Franz Rosenzweig wrote that upon completion of his magnum opus The Star of Redemption, he had intended to spend his remaining years learning halakha, towards the eventual purpose of writing a book on the subject. In this book, Leon Wiener Dow claims that there do in fact exist in Rosenzweig's thought ample foundations on which to construct a theory of halakha. In the first half of the book, Wiener Dow shows through careful argumentation that brief, well-known statements of Rosenzweig’s – such as his open letter to Martin Buber, “The Builders;” as well as his famous statement that he does “not yet” don tefillin – rest upon deep foundations in his broader philosophy. In the second half of the book, Wiener Dow examines three trends in the halakhic discourse of different periods – that of the rabbinic period, opposition to the Shulhan Arukh in sixteenth century Poland, and the Izbica/Radzin school of Hassidic thought – and shows that the theory of halakha emergent from Rosenzweig’s writings finds profound echo in each of these three approaches. In so doing, Wiener Dow shows that Rosenzweig’s work reflects deep religious-halakhic intuitions. In the end, this book demonstrates not only that the halakhic discourse is broad enough to include Rosenzweig’s voice – but that it is enriched by doing so.