An early 18th-century Purim parody imagines Haman rotting in a jail cell, awaiting his execution, dictating his last will and testament to his ten beloved sons. Jeremy Brown surfaces this obscure text, and asks what its meaning might have been when composed in Livorno by David Polido, and what message it may contain for contemporary American Jewry.

What did R. Samson Raphael Hirsch think of Jewish distinctiveness? Did he believe there is a distinctive biological propensity for superior spiritual potential? Moshe Y. Miller, in responding to a recent review of his new book on Hirsch’s religious universalism, does some explaining.

Jeffrey Saks uses the Editor’s Note to share some memories of Rav Elazar Meir Teitz zt”l, his warmth and humor, adding some color to the very many well-deserved tributes that properly praised his rabbinic leadership and phenomenal legacy as a manhig, talmid hakham, and posek.

In this week's Parashat Mishpatim, we read of the institution of slavery and its attendant obligations on how the master must treat the servant. Maimonides extends this obligation of compassion even to Canaanite slaves. Yet, as Mois Navon reveals in his recent TRADITION essay, the significance of this law goes far beyond slavery and encapsulates Maimonides’ entire program for not only moral development but human perfection itself.

Yehuda Rock has attempted the monumental project of updating Mordechai Breuer’s entire methodology of biblical interpretation, while avoiding the major deficiencies that beset his teacher’s “Theory of Aspects” method (to say nothing of Biblical Criticism). In reviewing Rock’s new book Hayyim Angel suggests the author’s greatest contribution is forcing readers to rethink their tendency to smooth over bumps in the biblical narrative.