In this episode of the Tradition Podcast, our associate editor Yitzchak Blau interviews author, researcher, and Makor Rishon columnist Yair Sheleg about his recent Hebrew book “HaHut HaMeshulash,” whose English title might be offered as “The Triple Chord: A Short History of Religious Zionism.” Rav Kook believed that Religious Zionism combines elements of religion, nationalism, and liberalism. Sheleg asks if contemporary Religious Zionism has remained loyal to this triple mission. If not, why not—and where has it fallen short? 

Mali Brofsky and Mark Smilowitz discuss the central thesis of his recent essay, “Esther and the Spies: A Bible-Based Symbolic Meaning of Walled Cities from the Time of Joshua” (Fall 2024). The two explore its timely Purim message and its claims regarding faith and meaning, and how it can serve as a source of support during the great challenges facing us today. 

In a remarkable new essay appearing in TRADITION, Neti Penstein explores the interplay of halakhic sources in the writings of Maimonides, Rabbi Soloveitchik, and others, and brings her analysis of that wisdom to bear in offering a solution to a particular 50-year-old philosophical paradox about the meaning and mechanics of forgiveness. Penstein discusses her essay on the Tradition Podcast—and listeners will be reminded of the Rav’s closing remark in “The Halakhic Mind”: “Out of the sources of Halakhah, a new world view awaits formulation.”

This week TraditionOnline ran a series of excerpts from three new books that have been written and published from within the fog of war; each aiming to offer religious insight and respond to the traumas of our collective Jewish experiences since Simchat Torah 2023. In this podcast we chat with Erica Brown, Rachel Sharansky Danziger, and Moshe Taragin about their writing, the challenge of responding “from the gut” in real time, and how powerful and responsive works of this nature impact in their moment and resonate across the years.