Torah-im-Derekh Eretz manifests the rationalization of Jewish traditional culture within the perspective of the West European liberalism that stemmed from the Enlightenment. In this respect, Torah-im-Derekh Eretz marked Orthodox Judaism's breakthrough into the modern world. The religious–ideological portals that this movement opened to general life made it possible for observant German Jews to integrate into that life by cultivating new awareness as both Jews and human beings. The father of Torah-im-Derekh Eretz was Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–88).

Hirsch belonged to the third generation of observant German Jewish modernizers of traditional culture. I shall briefly address the systems of Hirsch's predecessors, upon which he was to draw.

Moses Mendelssohn and Hartwig Wessely, both of Berlin, were the significant figures of the first generation; they laid the ground-work for Jewish Enlightenment in the final days of the ghetto. Mendelssohn (1729–86) constituted the pivotal figure in the Jewish transition to the modern world. A highly esteemed philosopher and literary critic within the West European intellectual circles of his day, Mendelssohn presented Judaism as a rational religion that is highly consonant with the values of the Enlightenment. The key to his modernizing thrust lay in his singling out the mitzvot as the sole prescriptive feature of Judaism. By distinguishing between the universal sphere of this religion at the level of beliefs and views, and the particular sphere at the level of the mitzvot, he implied that Jews could share a common religious life with non-Jews in all matters outside the observance of halakhah.