Introduction: The Postmodern Paradox and the Courage of Faith
The Contemporary Crisis of Belief
The contemporary spiritual landscape is defined by a profound crisis of meaning, a condition identified by the philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard as an “incredulity toward metanarratives”.1 This postmodern condition is characterized by a pervasive skepticism towards the “grand narratives” that once provided a cohesive and comprehensive sense of meaning for Western civilization—narratives of progress, reason, and, most centrally, religious truth.3 For traditional religious systems such as Judaism, which are fundamentally structured around such narratives—Creation, Revelation at Sinai, and ultimate Redemption—this intellectual climate poses an existential threat. The challenge is not, as it was in the modern era, a contest between rival truth claims, such as Torah versus science.5 Rather, it is a more fundamental corrosion of the very category of “Truth” itself, a shift in how one believes in a world of relative values, subjective realities, and personal “narratives” where any claim to absolute, objective truth is often dismissed as an assertion of power.6 In this environment, orthodox religion is perceived less as being demonstrably false than as being audacious for claiming the authority of truth at all.6
Introducing Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Shagar)
It is within this crucible of shattered certainties that the work of Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (1949–2007), known by the acronym Rav Shagar, emerges as one of the most audacious and significant theological projects of the late 20th century.8 An influential Israeli thinker from the Religious Zionist community, Shagar was a figure of profound paradoxes. Deeply rooted in the traditional disciplines of Talmudic study, Hasidut, and Kabbalah, he was simultaneously and fearlessly engaged with the most challenging currents of secular postmodern philosophy, weaving together the sacred and the profane in a manner that was often perceived as a threat by the religious establishment.10 His thought was indelibly marked by personal trauma; as a young soldier in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he was pulled, badly burned, from a blazing tank, an experience that left him with a lifelong awareness of the arbitrary, the senseless, and the unsymbolizable kernel of existence.9 This biographical wound predisposed him to a theology that did not seek to explain away suffering but to find God within the rupture itself.
Thesis Statement
This report argues that Rav Shagar performs a radical theological maneuver in response to the postmodern crisis. Instead of attempting to defend the Symbolic order of Judaism—its laws, texts, and historical narratives—on the now-failing grounds of objective, metaphysical truth, he re-grounds the very essence of faith (emunah) in the pre-Symbolic, traumatic, and unspeakable domain that the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan termed “the Real.” This seemingly destructive move, which equates faith with the chaotic kernel of existence that resists all language and meaning, paradoxically creates a new, powerful, and intensely subjective foundation for a renewed commitment to the highly structured Symbolic system of Halakha (Jewish Law). For Shagar, it is precisely because faith touches the terrifying void that the structure of Halakha becomes not a matter of objective truth, but a psychological and existential necessity—a framework for living with the terror and sublimity of the Real.
A ‘Deep Dive’ overview from NotebookLM
Part I: Theoretical Foundations
Chapter 1: The Architecture of the Psyche: A Primer on the Lacanian Orders
To comprehend the radical nature of Rav Shagar’s theological project, it is essential to first master the conceptual grammar he imports from the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Lacan proposed that human psychic reality is not a unified whole but is structured by three constantly interacting and intertwined registers or orders: the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real.14 These are not developmental stages but co-existing dimensions of our being.
The Imaginary Order
The Imaginary is the realm of images, identification, and illusion. Its paradigmatic moment is the “Mirror Stage,” in which an infant first sees its reflection and jubilantly perceives itself as a unified, whole being. This perception, however, is based on an illusion; the image is an external “other” with which the child identifies, forming the basis of the ego. The ego, for Lacan, is this collection of alienating identifications—the idealized self-image we construct and present to ourselves and the world. The Imaginary is thus the dimension of fantasy, rivalry, love, and hate, all predicated on this deceptive feeling of wholeness.14
The Symbolic Order
The Symbolic is the realm of language, law, social structure, and culture. It is the world of the “big Other”—the network of unwritten rules, shared understandings, and linguistic codes that govern society and into which every human is born. When a child learns to speak, they are inserted into the Symbolic order. They learn to articulate needs through signifiers (words), but a fundamental gap, or lack, is introduced, because the word is never the thing itself. This order, which Lacan termed the “Name-of-the-Father,” structures our reality and our unconscious, which he famously stated is “structured like a language.” It makes us social beings but simultaneously alienates us from any pre-linguistic, “natural” state.14
The Real
The Real is the most difficult and crucial of Lacan’s concepts. The Real is emphatically not reality. Reality, in the Lacanian framework, is the shared world constructed through the interplay of the Imaginary and the Symbolic. The Real is precisely what this construction excludes, what it cannot process or contain.14 It is the impossible—that which resists symbolization absolutely. It is the raw, unstructured, traumatic kernel that language cannot touch, tame, or narrate. It has no opposite; it is pure, undifferentiated presence. It is the unutterable glitch in the matrix, the brute fact of death, the physical limits of the body, a sudden and meaningless catastrophe. The Real is the rock against which our symbolic world constantly crashes.14
Characteristics of the Real
Shagar’s theology will seize upon the specific attributes of the Real and map them directly onto the experience of faith.
The Traumatic Kernel
A traumatic event is traumatic precisely because it cannot be fully symbolized or integrated into a coherent narrative. It is a raw, unmediated confrontation with the Real. The psyche desperately attempts to wrap the event in stories (Symbolic) and images (Imaginary), but the horrifying core remains an indigestible piece of the Real, often returning in flashbacks or symptoms.14
The Body and Jouissance
The body is not merely the image we have of it (Imaginary); it is a site of the Real. It bleeds, sickens, ages, and dies, resisting our attempts to control or fully understand it. Our drives emerge from this Real dimension, which is also the domain of jouissance—an excessive, painful, and transgressive form of enjoyment that lies beyond the pleasure principle. Jouissance is a terrifying “too-muchness” of satisfaction that can lead to addiction and self-destruction as the subject seeks a forbidden encounter with the Real.14
The Source of Anxiety
Lacanian anxiety is not the fear of a specific object. It is the uncanny dread that arises when the screen of the Symbolic and Imaginary begins to fail, when we get too close to the Real. It is the horrifying premonition that our structured reality is about to collapse, revealing the meaningless void that lies beneath.14
The Borromean Knot
In his later work, Lacan used a topological figure called the Borromean knot to illustrate the relationship between the three orders. The knot consists of three interlinked rings, configured in such a way that if any single ring is cut, the other two fall apart. This model has profound implications. First, no order is primary; they are mutually dependent and co-create our psychic structure. Second, normal subjectivity exists at the intersection of these three rings, in the constant tension between our self-image (Imaginary), the social laws we inhabit (Symbolic), and the unsymbolizable kernel of our being (Real). Third, psychosis is what happens when this knot comes undone, leading to a collapse of the subject’s reality.14
This psychoanalytic model becomes, in Shagar’s hands, a powerful theological framework for understanding the stability of the religious personality in a postmodern world. The “collapse in Halakhic thinking” can be understood as the fraying or potential cutting of the Symbolic ring—the ring of law, narrative, and shared meaning. The modern religious project attempted to repair this ring by insisting on its objective truth, an effort that has largely failed. Shagar’s project is entirely different. He does not try to mend the Symbolic ring with old arguments. Instead, he seeks to re-knot the entire structure by intensifying the subject’s relationship with the other rings, particularly the Real. By grounding faith in the traumatic, anxious encounter with the Real, he creates a profound and desperate need for the structure of the Symbolic to contain it. Shagar’s theology is thus an act of psychic re-knotting; he uses the terrifying energy of the Real to make the Symbolic psychologically indispensable, precisely at the moment its metaphysical claims have been shattered.
Chapter 2: The Collapse of the Symbolic: Postmodernity as a Spiritual Condition
Rav Shagar’s thought is a direct and unflinching engagement with the spiritual condition of postmodernity. He does not treat it as a marginal academic theory but as the pervasive cultural atmosphere that shapes the modern soul.1 His project is not to refute postmodernism, but to inhabit it and discover within its apparent nihilism a new, albeit perilous, path to God.
Postmodernity as the Failure of Grand Narratives
Shagar identifies postmodernism with Lyotard’s definition: a fundamental loss of faith in “grand narratives, in metaphysical goals, and in comprehensive theories”.1 This entails a rebellion against intellectual and moral certitude and a rejection of any concept of “truth” other than one arising from an individual’s subjective experience.1 In a postmodern world, all belief systems are seen as culturally constructed products, or “narratives”.7 To insist on the absolute superiority of one’s own meta-narrative is considered the cardinal sin, an act of intellectual hegemony.7
From Modernity’s Crisis to Postmodernity’s Void
It is crucial to distinguish the postmodern challenge from the modern one that preoccupied Jewish thinkers for the previous two centuries. Modernity was a battle of competing truths. The challenge was to negotiate between rival grand narratives—Torah versus Science, Judaism versus Secular Humanism.5 Thinkers like Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook dedicated their efforts to synthesizing these rival claims or demonstrating the supremacy of Torah. Postmodernism renders this entire project obsolete.5 The question is no longer which truth to accept, but what truth is altogether. Can one be certain of anything? In its “hard” manifestation, this leads to a nihilistic abyss, a parallel indifference to the world’s meaninglessness—and this is the challenge Shagar confronts head-on.1
Shagar’s Theological Re-appropriation
Herein lies Shagar’s most radical move. Whereas many religious thinkers view the collapse of the Symbolic order as an unmitigated disaster, as heresy (kefira), Shagar sees it as a profound spiritual opportunity.16 He frames this cultural moment using the language of Lurianic Kabbalah, identifying it as a contemporary manifestation of the shevirat ha-kelim, the primordial “shattering of the vessels”.15 In Kabbalistic mythos, this shattering was a necessary catastrophe that dispersed divine sparks throughout creation, initiating the process of tikkun (rectification). For Shagar, the postmodern shattering of old certainties is similarly a necessary, albeit painful, event that clears away the idols of ideology and opens a space for a more direct, unmediated, and authentic encounter with the divine.16
Mapping the Void: The Real, Ayin, and Tzimtzum
Shagar performs a breathtaking act of creative synthesis, mapping the postmodern experience of the void onto the deepest structures of Jewish mysticism and, in turn, onto Lacanian psychoanalysis.
First, the postmodern loss of a metaphysical bedrock, the sense that at the heart of existence is nothingness, is identified with the Kabbalistic concept of ayin.1 Ayin is not mere absence but a paradoxical “no-thingness,” the infinite, undifferentiated divine reality from which all determinate being emerges. Postmodernism, by stripping away the illusion of objective truth, inadvertently reveals this mystical foundation.16
Second, this experience of ayin is explicitly linked to the Lacanian Real.1 The Real, as the pre-symbolic, undifferentiated order that resists language and structure, becomes the psychoanalytic counterpart to the mystical concept of ayin. The postmodern condition, with its anxieties and loss of meaning, is an eruption of the Real into our lives, a confrontation with the nothingness that our symbolic systems are designed to obscure.2
Finally, Shagar connects this entire constellation to another Lurianic myth, that of tzimtzum (divine self-contraction), as interpreted by one of his key influences, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.16 According to this teaching, in order for creation to exist, the infinite God had to “contract” or “withdraw,” creating a halal ha-panui, a “vacant space” seemingly empty of the divine presence. This creates an unresolvable paradox at the heart of existence: the world is both devoid of God and yet must be fully part of God, for nothing can exist apart from the divine. Rabbi Nachman taught that this paradox cannot be solved intellectually; it must be approached with a silence born of humility and faith.16 For Shagar, this is a perfect description of the postmodern religious dilemma. We live in a world that appears empty of objective truth (the vacant space), yet faith demands that we find God within it. The postmodern condition forces the believer into the paradoxical stance of Rabbi Nachman: to live with contradiction rather than resolution, to embrace a faith that operates in the very space of God’s apparent absence.16
Part II: Shagar’s Theological Project
Chapter 3: Faith in the Pre-Symbolic: Mapping Emunah onto the Real **
Having established the theoretical framework, Rav Shagar proceeds to radically redefine the nature of Jewish faith (emunah). He relocates it from the Symbolic realm of creed, dogma, and rational proof to the raw, pre-linguistic, and paradoxical domain of the Lacanian Real. This move constitutes a fundamental shift from what he terms a “Religion of Truth” to a “Religion of Belief”.19
** See on this site A Lacanian Analysis of the Sinai Event – Rachav | Changing the Paradigm
The “Two-World Approach”
At the core of Shagar’s theology is what he calls the “two-world approach”.1 He argues that the postmodern believer must learn to exist simultaneously in two contradictory realities without attempting to resolve them into a harmonious synthesis. The first is the world of ordinary experience, governed by scientific principles of cause and effect—the world structured by the Symbolic and Imaginary orders. In this world, prayer is statistically ineffective, and events are dictated by natural law.1 The second world is the world of faith. This world, Shagar posits, operates in the realm of the Lacanian “Real,” the pre-linguistic domain that is immune to scientific or logical verification. In this realm, prayer is profoundly effective, and life is experienced as a direct dialogue with the divine.1 The believer does not ignore the contradiction; to do so would be willful ignorance. Rather, they resolve to remain in both worlds, accepting that different levels of experience are no more or less “true” than any other.1
From a “Religion of Truth” to a “Religion of Belief”
This “two-world approach” facilitates a crucial transition. A “Religion of Truth” is characteristic of the pre-modern and modern eras. It seeks to ground faith in objective, demonstrable, and universal proofs. It relies on metaphysics, rational arguments, and the absolute authority of a grand narrative. This project, Shagar contends, has failed; its claims to certainty have been deconstructed by the postmodern critique.19 In its place, he proposes a “Religion of Belief.” This is a faith founded not on external proof but on a subjective, existential choice. It is a commitment made in the full awareness of the absence of certainty. For Shagar, “belief is found in life not ideology”.19 It is an embrace of a personal narrative, a passionate commitment to one’s own story without the need to prove it is universally true.19
The Power of “Perhaps”: Faith Beyond Certainty
This shift radically redefines the nature of emunah. Traditionally, faith was often equated with certainty. For Shagar, certainty is not only unnecessary for faith; it can be a form of idolatry.7 To claim perfect, certain knowledge of the infinite God is to reduce the divine to finite, human categories—to create a “graven image” of fixed dimensions. True faith, therefore, must exist in a state of humility and openness.7 It resides not in the declarative “I know,” but in the tentative “maybe” or “perhaps”.3
Shagar argues that a faithful answer to the question “Is there a Creator of the world?” can be “Perhaps”.23 This is not an expression of weakness but of profound spiritual honesty. The “perhaps” acknowledges the limits of human language and reason. It creates an open space, a readiness to listen, which is the very condition for the possibility of revelation. A definitive “yes” can paradoxically block off this possibility by turning God into a static, known “fact”.23 Faith, in this view, is the belief in the possibility of a thing; the faith that things could be good is enough to experience the presence of God, even amidst suffering.3 The domain of the Real—the domain of faith—cannot necessarily be brought to bear on our everyday lives in a verifiable way, but the belief in its possibility constitutes “faith in its fullest sense”.3
Doubt as a Religious Imperative
Consequently, doubt is no longer the enemy of faith but its essential partner. Absolute certainty, Shagar warns, is dangerous; it is the mindset of the religious terrorist, who lacks the doubt that would prevent him from committing murder in the name of his ideology.23 Doubt serves a crucial spiritual function: it shatters the rigidity of language and ideology, preventing faith from hardening into a lifeless dogma. It forces the believer to constantly re-engage with reality, to prevent the encounter with God from being replaced by a mere external definition.23
Shagar’s premier example of this paradoxical faith is his reading of the Akeidah (the Binding of Isaac). He rejects interpretations that portray Abraham as a figure of simple, unwavering certainty. Instead, drawing on midrashic sources, he presents an Abraham filled with profound moral and religious doubt, questioning the veracity and validity of the divine command.1 The true test of the Akeidah was not simply obedience, but Abraham’s willingness to proceed through this doubt, to “forfeit everything—not just his ethics but even his very religion” in his perceived obligation to God.2 For Shagar, meaningful religious observance is therefore Kierkegaardian in the extreme: it is an act performed not only despite doubt, but because the possibility of doubt makes the act a true expression of dedication.2 Faith must embrace the void of uncertainty, just as God, in the language of tzimtzum, “exists without existence.” The believer is called to “Believe without believe,” conscripting the very lack of faith into the service of a higher, more paradoxical faith.23
Table 3.1: A Comparison of Traditional/Modern and Shagarian/Postmodern Faith Paradigms
| Feature | Traditional / Modern Faith Paradigm | Shagarian / Postmodern Faith Paradigm |
| Nature of Truth | Objective, universal, demonstrable through reason or revelation. A “Religion of Truth.” 7 | Subjective, personal, chosen. A “Religion of Belief.” 19 |
| Foundation of Belief | Certainty, proofs, authoritative texts, grand narratives (metaphysics). 3 | The encounter with the unsymbolizable (the Real), the void (ayin), personal experience. 1 |
| Role of Doubt | An obstacle to be overcome; a sign of weak faith; a heresy. 24 | A necessary condition for authentic faith; a catalyst; a way to break ideological rigidity. 23 |
| Key Epistemic State | “I know” or “I am certain.” 23 | “Perhaps.” 3 |
| Source of Authority | External: Divine command, unbroken tradition, hierarchical rabbinic structures. 25 | Internal: Subjective choice, covenantal commitment, self-acceptance, the feeling of “home.” 17 |
| Metaphor for God | The First Being, Lawgiver, King (Symbolic representations). 3 | The Infinite that “exists without existence”; the “Nothingness” (ayin); the pre-Symbolic Real. 22 |
| Primary Challenge | Defending faith against rival truth claims (e.g., science, other religions). 5 | Maintaining commitment and passion in the face of nihilism and the absence of certainty. 5 |
Chapter 4: Halakha as the Symbolic Order: The Law Under Deconstruction
Having redefined faith as an encounter with the pre-Symbolic Real, Shagar must then confront the central structure of Jewish religious life: Halakha. If faith is located in the chaotic, unstructured kernel of existence, what becomes of the meticulous, highly ordered system of Jewish law?
Defining Halakha as a Symbolic System
Halakha, derived from the Hebrew root meaning “to walk” or “to go,” is far more than a simple legal code. It is the comprehensive Symbolic order of Jewish life.25 It is “the way” a Jew is directed to behave in every conceivable aspect of existence, encompassing civil, criminal, and ritual law.28 Based on biblical commandments, subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic elaborations, and generations of customs and traditions, Halakha constitutes a totalizing system of language, ritual, and regulation that structures reality for the observant Jew.25 From the grand principles of justice to the minute details of dietary observance, Halakha provides the framework for meaning, the vocabulary for religious expression, and the blueprint for communal identity. In Lacanian terms, it is the quintessential “Symbolic Order,” the network of rules and shared understandings that constitutes a coherent reality.14
The Nature of the “Collapse”
The “collapse in Halakhic thinking” that the contemporary era faces is not a failure of the system’s internal logic, but a crisis of its external authority. In a postmodern context, the foundations upon which Halakhic obligation was traditionally based have been severely eroded.6
Loss of Objective Authority
The Orthodox position holds that Halakha is, at its core, a divine law, laid down in the Torah and authoritatively interpreted by an unbroken chain of tradition.25 This claim to a transcendent, objective, and unalterable source of authority becomes profoundly problematic in a world that views all legal and moral systems as historically contingent, culturally constructed “narratives”.6 The grand narrative of a singular revelation at Sinai, which once grounded the entire edifice, is now seen by many as just one story among others, losing its power to command absolute obedience.7
The Problem of Subjectivity
The postmodern ethos champions individual autonomy, self-creation, and the primacy of subjective experience.10 This creates a direct conflict with a hierarchical system like Halakha, which demands submission to an external code and the authority of rabbinic decisors (poskim). The emphasis shifts from communal obligation to the individual’s right to choose their own values and lifestyle, making the “yoke of the commandments” feel less like a sacred duty and more like an oppressive imposition.10
The “Post-Halakhic” Condition
This erosion of authority has led to what Rabbi Jack Cohen, a student of Mordecai Kaplan, termed the “post-halakhic” condition.32 This term does not necessarily mean a Judaism “without Halakha,” but rather a Judaism that exists after the traditional sense of binding, cosmic, or communal obligation has ceased to be a given for the majority of Jews. For most contemporary Jews, a lack of obligation is the starting point. Any engagement with Halakhic practice is an act of personal choice, a conscious effort to rebuild a relationship with the mitzvot (commandments) rather than an inherited, unquestioned duty.32 Rav Shagar is acutely aware that he is writing for and to a generation that begins from this post-halakhic reality, a generation for whom the old arguments for obedience no longer resonate.
Part III: Ramifications and Re-Construction
Chapter 5: Re-Knotting the Borromean Rings: Grounding the Symbolic in the Real
The central paradox of Rav Shagar’s entire theological system now comes into sharp focus: How can a faith located in the anti-Symbolic, chaotic, and traumatic Real serve as a stable foundation for a life of meticulous observance of the highly structured, rule-bound, Symbolic system of Halakha? The resolution to this paradox is not logical but psychological and existential, and it represents Shagar’s most profound contribution to contemporary Jewish thought.
Halakha as a Bulwark Against the Real
The encounter with the Real—with the traumatic void, the meaninglessness of ayin, the brute facts of mortality—is psychologically terrifying. As Lacan theorized, proximity to the Real is the source of our deepest anxiety.14 It is the dread that our constructed reality is about to fall apart. Shagar argues that it is precisely this terror that makes the Symbolic order of Halakha not just desirable, but absolutely necessary. The rigid, comprehensive, and all-encompassing structure of Halakhic practice becomes a vital psychological container. It provides the stability, meaning, and daily rhythm needed to withstand the anxiety of a faith grounded in nothingness. Halakha functions as a protective screen, a structured way of life that allows the believer to live on the edge of the abyss without falling in. The meticulousness of the law, which might seem arbitrary to an outsider, becomes a source of profound comfort, a bulwark against the chaos of the Real.
Commitment Beyond Reason: The Covenantal Choice
In the postmodern world, where objective proof for Halakha’s divine origin is no longer compelling, the commitment to its observance must come from a different source. Shagar locates this source in the concept of brit, or covenant.27 A covenant, like a marriage, is a passionate, existential choice that transcends reason. One does not enter a covenant because of a logical proof, but out of love and a desire for a mutual, exclusive relationship. Shagar argues that the commitment to Halakha is a similar act of covenantal faith. It is a choice to bind oneself to God and the Jewish people, a choice that is not predicated on Halakha being “true” in an objective sense, but on it being mine, our shared inheritance and way of life.27 This passionate commitment, rooted in an emotional and existential decision, provides the energy to sustain observance when intellectual certainty has failed.
Halakha as a “Language Game”
To further insulate Halakha from the corrosive effects of external critique, Shagar employs the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of a “language game”.10 A language game is a self-contained system of discourse with its own internal rules, logic, and criteria for meaning. The meaning of a word or an action is determined by its use within that specific game. Shagar posits that Halakha is just such a language game.5 Its concepts—such as pure/impure, permitted/forbidden—have meaning only within the context of the religious life it structures. Therefore, to subject Halakha to criticism based on the rules of a different language game, such as secular humanism or modern ethics, is a fundamental category error.5 Such external criticism, he argues, “destroy[s] the soul of halacha”.5 Conversely, a posek (halakhic decisor) who operates from within the game, who is fluent in its language and committed to its premises, has “inexhaustible options for maneuverability in his interpretations”.5 This view allows Halakha to be a dynamic, evolving system, capable of adapting to new realities while retaining the integrity of its internal logic, because the truth of a ruling is manifest in the posek’s very use of the halakhic language itself.5
This entire framework culminates in a profound re-envisioning of Halakha’s function for the postmodern believer. In Lacan’s later thought, he introduced a fourth term, the sinthome, to his Borromean knot. The sinthome is a fourth ring that functions to hold the other three (Imaginary, Symbolic, Real) together, especially in cases where the standard “knotting” agent—the “Name-of-the-Father,” or the authority of the Symbolic order—is weak or has failed.14 The sinthome is the subject’s unique, core symptom or mode of organizing their jouissance (their excessive, painful enjoyment) in a way that gives their life consistency and prevents a psychotic break. Shagar’s model implicitly positions Halakhic observance as the very sinthome of the postmodern religious Jew. With the traditional authority of the Symbolic order (the “Name-of-the-Father” that guaranteed Halakha’s divine status) having collapsed, the psychic knot of the believer is at risk of unraveling into the nihilistic void of the Real. The passionate, seemingly irrational, all-encompassing, and covenantal commitment to Halakha becomes the fourth ring. It is the unique “symptom” that the postmodern believer adopts to structure their life, to manage the anxiety of the Real, and to give their fractured existence a coherent form. In this formulation, Halakha ceases to be merely the Symbolic order and is transformed into the sinthome—the unique, subjective solution that holds the postmodern Jewish psyche together.
Chapter 6: The Subjective Turn: Halakha as “Home”
The re-grounding of Halakha in the Real and its function as a psychological necessity precipitates a decisive turn toward subjectivity. If the law can no longer be justified by its claim to universal, objective truth, it must be embraced for what it is to the individual and the community that chooses to live by it.
The Rejection of Universalism
Shagar is deeply critical of what he sees as a Western, and particularly modern, obsession with universalism and objective truth.17 He views this as a form of intellectual colonialism that attempts to flatten real and valuable differences between cultures and worldviews. The demand that Judaism justify itself according to a universal standard of reason is a trap that he refuses to enter. The commitment to Halakha, therefore, is not a claim that it is the best or only valid legal-spiritual system for all humanity. Such a claim would be meaningless in a postmodern framework. Instead, it is a profound and particularistic affirmation.17
Halakha as “Home”
To capture this subjective, particularistic commitment, Shagar employs a powerful and recurring metaphor: Halakha is “home”.3 One does not choose a home based on an objective, comparative analysis of all available houses to prove that it is empirically the “best.” A home is simply one’s own. It is the self-evident, unquestionable context for one’s life, the place where one belongs. This sensation of being at home, Shagar writes, “is the basis for the deepest type of faith”.17 Traditional theological debates seeking absolute criteria to prove which belief system reigns supreme are rendered meaningless. Faith in Halakha is the act of choosing to dwell within it as one’s home, without the need for external validation.3
Living in Multiple Worlds
Shagar is a realist about the condition of the contemporary Jew. He acknowledges that, for better or worse, “we are citizen of multiple cultures and we live in more than one world of values”.33 The religious Zionist, in particular, lives with a foot in the Beit Midrash (study hall) and another in the secular, modern world of Israeli society, media, and the university.33 He firmly rejects the approach of compartmentalization, famously associated with the philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, which seeks to keep these worlds hermetically sealed from one another. For Shagar, such a bifurcation is a form of self-denial that leads to an impoverished faith.33 Instead, he advocates for living within the tension, managing the “confusing and often even schizophrenic set of relationships between” these different value systems. He sees this internal multiplicity and conflict not as a problem to be solved, but as a potential source of immense spiritual creativity and a higher religious perspective.33
The Holy Rebellion of Being a “Loser” (Freier)
In this context, the choice to live a committed Halakhic life becomes a radical, counter-cultural act. Within a mainstream Israeli culture that often prizes individualism, hedonism, and a cynical avoidance of being taken advantage of, the decision to be bound by the covenant of Halakha is a form of rebellion. Shagar provocatively reclaims the pejorative Israeli slang term freier—which roughly translates to “sucker” or “loser”—as a badge of honor.34 He argues that in a world where no one is willing to be a loser, where everyone runs from commitment, the true rebellion is the Orthodox one: “to commit in a place where everybody runs from commitment.” It is the stubbornness to hold on to ethics in a world without ethics, to maintain faith in a nihilistic world, to be the “loser” of the world out of a profound sense that “This is how I am and this is how I want to be”.34 This is a postmodern rebellion against the modern rebellion, a holy act of counter-formation against a culture that rejects the very values of sacrifice and covenant that Halakha embodies.
Conclusion: The Fragility and Fecundity of a Postmodern Faith
Summary of Shagar’s Project
Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg’s theological project represents one of the most intellectually courageous and creative attempts to forge a path for passionate, traditional Jewish faith in a postmodern age. Confronting a cultural moment defined by the collapse of grand narratives and the erosion of objective certainty, Shagar eschews defensive apologetics. Instead, he performs a radical inversion: he relocates the very foundation of faith (emunah) from the crumbling Symbolic order of rational proofs and metaphysical claims to the terrifying, pre-linguistic, and traumatic domain of the Lacanian Real. This faith, defined by doubt, paradox, and the humble “perhaps,” becomes an encounter with the divine “nothingness” (ayin) that lies beneath all constructed realities. From this seemingly nihilistic starting point, Shagar reconstructs the necessity of Halakha. The comprehensive Symbolic structure of Jewish law is no longer justified as an objective truth, but is embraced as an existential and psychological necessity—a “home” that provides meaning, a “bulwark” that contains the anxiety of the Real, and a covenantal “choice” that gives life passion and direction. Halakha becomes the sinthome of the postmodern Jew, the unique solution that knots together a fractured psyche and makes a coherent life possible in an age of shattered tablets.
Critiques and Dangers
The audacity of Shagar’s thought is matched by its inherent risks, and his work has drawn significant criticism. A balanced assessment must acknowledge the potential dangers of his approach.
The Charge of Narcissism
The most potent critique, articulated by the eminent Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, is that Shagar’s heavy reliance on subjective experience, personal narrative, and “self-acceptance” risks collapsing into a form of “narcissism”.36 If faith is ultimately grounded in the self’s inner feelings and choices, and Halakha is embraced because it feels like “home,” there is a profound danger of turning religion into a form of sophisticated self-worship. The transcendent, commanding Otherness of God, who confronts and commands from outside the self, can become lost, replaced by a mystified image of the ego. Shagar himself was sensitive to this danger, fearing that a faith emanating from the “bowels of one’s selfhood” could become an “act of egocentric self-anointment” rather than true religious devotion.36 Whether his appeal to Lacanian and Hasidic ideas successfully navigates this peril remains an open and pressing question.
The Problem of Communal Cohesion
Shagar’s subjective turn also raises critical questions about communal life. A legal system like Halakha is, by its nature, a communal enterprise. If commitment to it is reduced to a series of individual, subjective choices to inhabit a personal “narrative,” it is difficult to see what prevents the complete atomization of the community. How can a shared legal framework function without a shared belief in its objective authority? If Halakha is merely “my truth” and not “the truth,” the basis for communal norms, authority, and cohesion appears to dissolve.
The Gap Between Theory and Practice
Finally, critics question whether Shagar’s sophisticated philosophical framework translates into a practical and dynamic Halakhic process. He claims that a posek operating from within the “language game” of Halakha has “inexhaustible options for maneuverability”.5 Yet, observers point to the seeming inability of the Orthodox rabbinate to adequately address some of the most pressing Halakhic challenges of our time, such as the plight of the agunah (“chained wife”), issues of gender inequality, and the status of homosexuality.5 The theoretical claim of infinite flexibility seems to clash with the practical reality of legal conservatism, raising questions about whether Shagar’s model is a description of a living process or a purely conceptual ideal.
A Critique from NotebookLM
Shagar’s Enduring Legacy
Despite these significant challenges, Rav Shagar’s enduring importance is undeniable. He stands as a “master diagnostician of the human soul under postmodernism”.18 His work is invaluable not because it provides a complete or unproblematic set of answers, but because it articulates the right questions with unparalleled intellectual honesty and spiritual depth. He provides a language and a conceptual framework for a generation of believers who find themselves caught between an inability to return to the simple certainties of a pre-modern faith and an unwillingness to abandon the covenantal life of Torah and mitzvot. He demonstrates that an authentic engagement with contemporary culture is not only possible but necessary, even when that culture seems antithetical to tradition.16 Rav Shagar’s legacy is a demanding, fragile, and paradoxical path—one that walks a knife-edge between the nihilistic abyss and renewed faith.5 It is a path for those willing to live with shattered tablets, finding within the fragments themselves the seeds of a faith both shattered and restored.
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