You are no doubt inundated with end-of-year donation requests for worthy causes. Please accept this update not as an appeal for your support but as a year-end inventory of what TRADITION has contributed to you, our readers. This year our Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought undertook important new ventures, made new achievements, and delivered engaging and enlightening scholarship in the four installments of Volume #55. Our editor Jeffrey Saks reviews 2023’s highlights here….

How could Judah convince an Egyptian official (unbeknownst to Judah, none other than the long-lost Joseph) to enslave an innocent man and let a convicted thief go free? Judah rises to the challenge magnificently. Read about the epic confrontation between Joseph and Judah in Hillel J. Chiel’s essay from the TRADITION Archives.

In light of the rare non-coincidence of Miketz and Hanukka we will read the almost always preempted Haftara for this week’s portion – which includes the well-known episode of Solomon’s judgment in the case of maternal identity. Rabbi J. David Bleich discussed this passage from I Kings in his “Survey of Recent Halakhic Literature” in our Fall 2023 issue. Read an excerpt from his article, “Horton Hatches the Egg, Who Raises the Chick?: Maternal Identity, Custody, and the Israeli Courts.”