A great intellectual revolution took place in the Lithuanian Yeshivoth towards the end of the 19th century. The multitude of students who filled up the study halls, invested their time and energy to study the Talmud and its interpretations in a new study method, which focused on the legal sphere of the Talmud and advocated the development of analytical-conceptual way of thinking that facilitated more exact definitions of legal-halakhic norms and concepts in Talmudic literature. The main effort in the new method was no longer devoted to the interpretation of the textual level of the Talmudic debate, but to the understanding of the form of legal thinking which could be deduced from the Talmud, to the clarification of legal-halakhic concepts and to revealing the fundamental elements of the law. The successful combination of intensive study of Talmudic law and analytical scrutiny of legal concept turned the Lithuanian yeshivoth into "academies for Talmudic legal studies" and led to the development of "legal thinking".
Rabbi Simeon Shkop (1859-1939) who was one of the most original and influential leaders of the Lithuanian yeshivoth, and a proponent of the new method. Rabbi Shkop upgraded the analytical examination of legal concepts, and in spite of the very individual nature of his method, his work is a faithful representation of the Lithuanian Yeshivoth as a whole.
The first part of the book (chapters 1-2) includes a biography of Rabbi Shkop, and a historical review of the intellectual revolution that took place at the Lithuanian Yeshivoth. It also describes the exceptional characteristics of the new study method, and substantiates the claim that "legal thinking" was indeed developed in the Lithuanian Yeshivoth. The second part of the book (chapters 3-5) deals with a number of topics from the comprehensive works of Rabbi S. Shkop, and analyze them with jurisprudential instruments.
The research method was based on a combination of historical and jurisprudential aspects, and the book is readily comprehensible for the educated reader without legal training or a Yeshiva background.
