Maurice Lamm in his book The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage is writing for a specific community to explain Jewish teachings on love and marriage and how they are based on traditions found in the Bible. These principles have been applied throughout Jewish history, and while this is certainly not the first book on these issues, it is a readable book produced for the contemporary Jewish community and in terms that link these doctrines to many of the larger social issues raised in society today. The book is written not for every Jewish community but for the American Jewish community of this period of time. Jewishness is always conceived in terms of a community setting, indicating how the individual may fit into that community, serve its needs, and gain strength from it at the same time. Judaism is a religion that needs explanation and a linkage with Jewish history as an introduction to the larger Jewish community, and this book addresses those needs. The specific roles of love and marriage help define a community, for they are closely related to the ability of a community to thrive, to perpetuate itself, and to pass traditions from one generation to the next. A close examination of the book shows the intentions of the author, his ability to realize those intentions, his methods of evidence, and the themes of community and service that are embodied by him in the book.
Lamm makes clear his reasons for writing this book at the outset--he sees the Jewish people in America, along with every other religious and ethnic group in that nation, as facing a contemporary world in which many of the verities have been challenged and all but forgotten:
First, society is in bedlam. A million people trapped in troubled marriages dash for the nearest exit. If their marriage cannot work, the whole institution must be headed for extinction. . . Second, the number of fragmented families and unhappy marriages continues to increase despite these...