February 27, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 27, 2024
In this profile of R. Hershel Schacter’s new book, “Divrei Soferim,” R. Yona Reiss discusses the volume’s nuanced treatment of the multiple facets of the Oral Torah, including the hermeneutical principles employed by the Talmud, and its relationship to the Written Torah. Reiss suggests that the book helps its readers develop a deeper understanding of this relationship and acts toward strengthening the “Masora,” a lifelong concern for R. Schachter.
February 25, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 25, 2024
The great twentieth-century Yemenite sage and scholar, Rabbi Amram Korah (1871-1952), left behind an important work on Rav Saadia Gaon’s tenth-century Tafsir, his Torah commentary and biblical translation to Judeo-Arabic. Nahem Ilan has now produced the first full edition with useful annotations and introduction. Carmiel Cohen, in reviewing the book, shows how Ilan unlocks Korah’s gateway to the thought and writing of R. Saadia.
February 22, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 22, 2024
Exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service generated contention already at Israel’s founding, but the current war has more powerfully brought this issue to the fore. In this installment of Alt+SHIFT, Yitzchak Blau outlines the background of this governmental policy, some of the many attempts to change it, and the impact this has had on Israeli society. The various reasons why this issue may be coming to a head right now should be obvious to reader.
February 20, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 20, 2024
Are the Seven Noahide Laws the parameters of an intended religion for Gentiles—or, as Yakov Nagen suggests, are they a means to rein in man’s destructive tendencies and preserve the world from obliteration? If murder corrupts all reality, as it did at the time of the Flood, and as it is now doing through Hamas and Hezbollah, how to these laws aim to serve as a corrective? Consider how the Noahide mitzvot join humanity into a stewardship that protects the fabric connecting human society with God, man, animal, and plant.
February 18, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 18, 2024
Yisroel Ben-Porat’s recent TRADITION essay offered an historical investigation of an enigmatic 18th-century figure, “Rabbi” Judah Monis—the first Jewish-born faculty member at Harvard, where he taught Hebrew for almost four decades. Monis converted in advance of his appointment, but seems to have maintained a complicated relationship with the Judaism he tried to leave behind. The Tradition Podcast spoke with Ben-Porat about this little-known chapter which opens very many questions about early (and contemporary) American Jewish identity.
February 15, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 15, 2024
In the long annals of TRADITION (and upon the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field), never have the words “Super Bowl” appeared. Chaim Strauchler introduces the phrase into one of these sacred canons to probe the moving lines between sports culture and religious stricture. Seeing the resilience of Orthodoxy’s connection to popular culture in a yeshiva’s Super Seder, Strauchler asks how rising antisemitism affects the community’s feelings of apartness and “a part”-ness in the sports arena and beyond.
February 12, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 12, 2024
Sarah Rindner, reviewing the much-discussed “Reclaiming Dignity: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women” by Bracha Poliakoff and Anthony Manning (Mosaica Press), suggest the book prods one to observe that tzniut is something of a paradox. It testifies to the power of outer appearances while also insisting on the importance of the internal, objectifying women and also emphasizing their inner worth. Its excess is problematic just as is its absence. Read Rindner review from TRADITION’s recent issue.
February 8, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 8, 2024
Prof. Benjamin Brown surveys both the history and contemporary role of Haredi society. In a comprehensive and sweeping volume, he provides chapters on Mitnagdim, Hasidim, and Sefardim, and also draws distinctions between mainstream Haredim, moderates, and extremists. Yitzchak Blau, suggests that although some of the material may be well-known to followers of the Haredi world, Brown adds new details and fresh insights.
February 5, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 5, 2024
TRADITION vol. 56 no. 1 (Winter 2024) has arrived with a special section of reflective essays on the current crisis in Israel and the Jewish world. Subscribers will soon receive their issue in the post and have full access to content online. See the issue highlights and access some open-access content.