X Introduction are never questioned and true crises cannot await a scholarly answer. Responsa, however, give us an insight into changing conditions and the willingness of the community to deal with new situations as our selection of Reform responsa demonstrate.

This is an area as yet little studied with older material hard to come by. Core issues and peripheral matters raise interesting questions and we hope to turn to them in the future. We will deal with issues connected to poverty and tzedakah in future volumes of this series.