From Ashkenaz To America-Via Brisk: Historical Models, Women's Torah Study, And The Agency Of Texts,

In Katz's monumental The Shabbes Goy, for example, he introduced the term "ritual instinct" to describe the deeply-rooted mimetic behavior that impacted the Tosafists' efforts to ground accepted local practice in Talmudic arguments.1 Similarly, Soloveitchik's examinations of medieval martyrdom, moneylending, and the production, consumption, and trade of wine all explore complex navigations between time-honored and hallowed religious behavior imbibed by committed Jews in their familiar environments and the formal legal canon. In its time, Soloveitchik's composition was far more intrepid, for he penned a scholarly article that asked a clearly-formulated research question-how to account for the new predilection of American Orthodoxy toward strictness?-and framed a rigorous thesis that builds on basic distinctions that he developed regarding a prior setting.2 The unique enterprise of Soloveitchik's academic wade into fresh territory was also reflected in the fact that at the time, study of contemporary American Judaism-including Orthodoxy, was dominated by social scientists and their quantitative and qualitative tool chest. [...]unlike the case with his scholarly studies of medieval Jewry, the name-recognition of the author cannot be easily detached from the subject matter. The justification for Soloveitchik taking this step is the product itself, which is founded on the author's vast erudition, his ability to fix his penetrating disposition on a personally familiar environment while maintaining a reasonable critical distance, and the rigorous command that he demonstrated of the primary and secondary material relevant to twentieth century Judaism.