September 19, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 19, 2024
Chaim Strauchler extrapolates from the earworm to a term he coins the “Torah worm.” At seemingly random points in the yearly public reading, community members join the ba’al keria in singing a phrase from the Torah reading. This installment of “TRADITION Questions” asks what unites the texts that become Torah worms? What do such Torah worms say about public Torah reading and about modern Jewish life?
September 17, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 17, 2024
As we approach Simhat Torah and one turn around the calendar since last year’s trauma, how should we adjust our upcoming prayers and celebrations? Avraham Stav considers what it means to cycle through the familiarity of the Jewish year and its holidays when even the familiar returns to us with alienation.
September 16, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 16, 2024
TRADITION and the Rabbinical Council of America recently hosted R. Mosheh Lichtenstein, Rosh Yeshivat Har Etzion, for a conversation revisiting a classic essay from our archives: R. Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, “The Ideology of Hesder” (Fall 1981), using it as a lens to explore contemporary issues in Israeli religious and civilian life and society and the particular challenges of the current war. Listen to a recording of the conversation on the Tradition Podcast.
September 15, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 15, 2024
With the arrival of Elul, Yitzchak Blau focuses our attention on two noteworthy new works on repentance: R. Michael Rosensweig “Mimini Mikhael” and R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s “Return and Renewal.” By bringing these volumes into conversation with each other he highlights one strong parallel and a number of intriguing contrasts between the works and their authors, offering us insights to the spiritual challenges that lie ahead for us all in the coming month.
September 12, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 12, 2024
Previously in "Unpacking the Iggerot" we reviewed R. Moshe Feinstein’s unequivocal objection to Kohanim attending medical school. This time around, Moshe Kurtz explores how R. Feinstein instead offers a novel leniency to enable Kohanim to fly to Israel…despite the halakhic challenges lurking beneath.
September 10, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 10, 2024
R. Soloveitchik challenged us to discover ways that a “new Jewish world view” might be formulated from the sources of halakha. In reviewing Tzvi Goldstein’s “Halakhic Worldviews” (Mosaica Press), Elisha Friedman finds an excellent template for how we might turn our attention to this daunting task.
September 8, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 8, 2024
TRADITION’s recent Summer issue contains Yitzchak Blau’s review of Gila Fine’s “The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud.” In this podcast the reviewer and the author sit down together for a conversation about the book and touch on the relationship between Biblical and Talmudic narrative and teaching values through aggada.
September 5, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 5, 2024
Chaim Strauchler examines recent administrative determinations regarding the charitable status of Jewish organizations in Canada and the US. He questions what these decisions mean to Zionism and diaspora Jewish communities.
September 4, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at September 4, 2024
Join TRADITION and the Rabbinical Council of America for an online Zoom conversation with R. Mosheh Lichtenstein, Rosh Yeshivat Har Etzion, revisiting a classic essay from our archives: R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s “The Ideology of Hesder,” using it as a lens to explore contemporary issues in Israeli religious and civilian life and society, and the particular challenges of the current war. Sunday, September 15 on Zoom (registration at link).