Biography

Rabbi Dr. Menachem/Martin L. Gordon is a distinguished Modern Orthodox thinker, whose lectures and publications are highly respected. He was ordained by Rav Soloveitchik at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University (1962), and received his Ph.D. degree in Medieval Jewish Philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva (1974). His doctoral thesis addressed The Rationalism of Jacob Anatoli, thirteenth century Provençal biblical commentator and translator of philosophic texts.

Rabbi Dr. Gordon served as Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Stern College for Women, and as Adjunct Associate Professor at Empire State College, Israel Program, State University of New York. He resides in Jerusalem, presently lecturing in Business Ethics at the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev).

His publications include both philosophic enquiries and research studies in Jewish thought and practice, among them the following:

• Mezuzah: Protective Amulet or Religious Symbol? A Talmudic critique of the mystical conception of mezuzah as an apotropaic device.
  
  
• Netilat Yadayim shel Shaharit: Ritual of Crisis or Dedication? A critical examination of the divergent Kabbalistic and Talmudic positions on the morning laving ritual.
  
  
• Messianism: Conflicting Conceptions. An examination of opposing positions on the dynamic of messianism as appearing in classic Jewish literature - an abrupt Divine upheaval or an emergent human drama, with the ramifications of each position for the redemptive significance of the State of Israel.
  
  
• A Fullness of Life. A Philosophy of Modern Orthodoxy.
  
  
• Coming to Terms with Non-Observance? An examination of the possibility of a respectful though critical Halakhic view of non-traditional lifestyles.
  
  
• Childbirth: A Covenantal Experience.