Shmirat HaDerech: the “Off Derech Phenomenon: How to Name It, Understand Prevent and Walk Someone Back

"Off the Derech" three words for twenty different trajectories. The expression is not wrong: it names a reality communities know. But it gathers under one label loud departures and silent ones, ruptures of faith and ruptures of belonging, passing crises turned far too quickly into an identity. So this book begins by distinguishing, because no one prevents or accompanies what he refuses first to name correctly. It then sets out what is known about the factors at work - educational, familial, social, psychological - and, with the same plainness, what is not known. It ends with the hardest part: how to stay in relationship when you no longer agree on anything, and how to walk someone back without making return the condition. Menahem Mendel Sander is the founder of Sander Édition. His books bring the sources of the Torah into conversation with contemporary research, holding both to the same documentary standard: verified quotations, complete references, opponents quoted at their full strength.