Abstract
This chapter offers an autobiographical accounting of Wiener Dow’s journey to the halakha. From his childhood in Houston, Texas, in which he was drawn toward a Jewish praxis incommensurate with his surroundings, through his college years, and into his years studying for personal rabbinic ordination from Rabbi David Hartman, his path reveals an attentiveness to a commanding voice—and to a community that tries to give expression, though its rigorous praxis, to a life of devotion to the Divine.
This autobiographical starting point results not only from the author’s philosophical commitments, but also from his understanding of halakha as a form of open-ended doing that requires a willingness to negotiate simultaneous commitments to personal authenticity, communal norm, and the command of the Divine.