The Con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment is at a cross­road in its direc­tion. What bet­ter time then for a seri­ous explo­ration of the nature of halakha in the Con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment? In this work, Rab­bi Dorff intro­duces us to legal the­o­ry in gen­er­al, then guides the read­er through the devel­op­ment of ancient Jew­ish law and gen­er­a­tions of the Con­ser­v­a­tive movement’s think­ing on the sub­ject. Reflect­ing the plu­ral­i­ty and range of opin­ions with­in the move­ment, this book presents the Jew­ish legal the­o­ries of thinkers such as Frankel, Kaplan, Schechter, Hes­chel, and many oth­ers (includ­ing the writer’s own the­o­ry). He con­trasts the movement’s think­ing to that of the Reform and Ortho­dox move­ments. This book, which is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for adult and col­lege study groups and cours­es, is replete with ancient and mod­ern texts to sup­port the var­i­ous view­points pre­sent­ed. Bib­lio., index, notes.