January 5, 2023
Continuing his discussion of the Hardal world, Yitzchak Blau’s newest installment of Alt+SHIFT profiles some of the writings of R. Tzvi Tau. Blau calls out a worldview that sees all ideological opponents as sinister people without redeeming qualities attempting to destroy Jewish values.
January 2, 2023
Download TRADITION’s special e-book publication of lecture notes, transcribed by R. Yaakov Homnick, on a course Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik taught at the Bernard Revel Graduate School in 1946–1947. This document presents a sustained argument for the preeminence of Halakha within Jewish tradition, over and above the realms of Aggada and Kabbala. The Rav argues that the centrality of Halakha served to shift the balance of Judaism away from other modes of practice: “The greatest contribution of the Halakha was its purging Judaism of all magical, mythical and ceremonial elements.”