Originally published in the Jewish Law Annual 12 (1997), p. 300.
The Lithuanian Analytical School: Some recent works of the analytical school, dominant in the Lithuanian Yeshivot and in their contemporary successors, were noted in The Jewish Law Annual, Vol. X, p. 282 (Survey of Recent Literature, No. 1463). A number of other important works in this genre should here be mentioned: Degel Reuven by Reuven Katz, former Chief Rabbi of Petah Tikvah, 4th edition, Jerusalem, 1991; Hiddushe Rabbi Hayyim MeTelz, by Hayyim Rabbinowitz, renowned head of the Telz Yeshivah in Lithuania, Bene Berak, n.d.; Mishnat Rabbi Aharon, by Aharon Kotler of Lakewood, USA, Jerusalem, 1985; Neot Arveh, by Laib Lopian of Gateshead, Jerusalem, 1992; Sha’are Hayyim on tractate Kiddushin, by Hayyim Laib Shmulevitz of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, 1989. In these and similar works all the emphasis is on the theory of Jewish law. This is true even of the works by Katz and Kotler, even though they purport to be Responsa. With the exception of the world famous Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, author of many volumes of Responsa, the members of the Lithuanian school seem to fight shy of dealing with practical issues. L.J.
