My translation of selections from Israel (Yisrael) Salanter's 30th Letter in "Or Yisrael" ("Light of Israel") was published in Jewish Legal Theories, a volume in the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought edited by Yonatan Brafman and Leora Batnitzky. As the editors explain in their introduction to the selections: "Consonant with the insights of Legal Realism and Critical Legal Studies, Salanter acknowledges that subjectivity cannot be eliminated from the determination of Jewish law. He maintains that while rabbinic judges must strive to make the strictly rational judgments characteristic of Torah law, this is ultimately unattainable for human beings. Indeed, he claims that far-reaching disputes between Jewish legal authorities stem from basic differences of temperament. Yet he insists that these emotional intrusions into rational law do not compromise it; rather, they provide opportunities for humans to contribute to the Torah."Yisrael (Lipkin) Salanter, "Light of Israel" (selections from Letter #30), trans. Geoffrey D. Claussen, in Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on State, Religion, and Morality, ed. Leora Batnitzky and Yonatan Brafman (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2018), 65–68.
- writings on Jewish thought, Jewish ethics, pedagogy, and musar (mussar) traditions
