Win a TRADITION subscription by picking our picks! We continue our yearly tradition of turning to our esteemed editorial board for endorsements for summer reading. Some may be amused to think of a seaside read with the hefty tomes our team chose – but that’s what you get for turning to TRADITION-niks for their reading picks of works of Torah, Madda, Torah u-Madda, or enlightening literature. Before the series launches, you can enter to win a subscription to our print journal by predicting the titles most likely to appear on this year’s list.

As Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary celebrates its Chag HaSemikha today we recall the charge that R. Norman Lamm delivered to the YU musmakhim 30 years ago. In a well-known address, “The Spirit of Elijah Rests Upon Elishah,” R. Lamm expressed his passion for what it means to enable each new rabbi to take up his task. R. Menachem Penner recently examined R. Lamm’s many addresses to the rabbis under his charge, writing: “Those infused with the wisdom of God are required, in a separate but equal way to the king, to play a role in steering the nation. R. Lamm did not downplay the challenges that lie ahead for his charges. He understood that the world in which the new rabbis would soon be serving was hostile to many values cherished in the walls of the yeshiva.”

In advance of celebrating Matan Torah, read Heshie & Rookie Billet’s exploration of the  centrality of personal Torah study in the life of every Jew as outlined in the writings of R. Norman Lamm as we mark his 4th Yahrzeit on 8 Sivan (from TRADITION’s “Rabbi Norman Lamm Memorial Volume”).