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David Ruderman


Out of the Well of the Past Out of the Well of the Past
Monday, August 2, 2010 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Jewish history was once regularly portrayed as a march from pre-modern stasis to modern revolution and change. This picture held its attractions, offering clearly marked battle lines for later proponents on either side of the ongoing ideological struggles between traditionalists and modernizers. By now, however, we have been well instructed in the deceptive simplicity of all such efforts to impress order on the relentless flux of history, which so often dissolves the closer we look at it.