July 25, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 25, 2024
A slew of surveys support the idea that post-October 7 we are witnessing a great “coming together” of the worldwide Jewish community. And not a moment too soon! During this season of the “three weeks” Jewish unity is certainly the order of the day. Chaim Strauchler considers whether this moment of unity reflects a new common Orthodox marketplace of consumers, students, and donors in this week’s Tradition Questions.
July 21, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 21, 2024
The Tradition Podcast discusses Gidon Rothstein’s thoughtful and sensitive review of Elisha Aviner’s “Dor Tahpukhot” and its advice to parents whose children have left the fold. Joining Jeffrey Saks to discuss the issue, Rothstein considers the book’s very specifically Israeli focus, and how its lessons might be adapted – or not – for an American audience.
July 18, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 18, 2024
What happens when the values of kashrut and family cohesion collide? In this installment, Moshe Kurtz’s “Unpacking the Iggerot” explores how R. Moshe Feinstein helped families navigate the halakhic complexities of dining at the same table and managing family ties while maintaining vastly different levels of Torah observance.
July 16, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 16, 2024
Our Summer 2024 issue has arrived—subscribers, keep an eye out for the neighborhood mailman. Everyone else, visit our site to see what you’re missing and sample a few of the open-access items. Issue highlights: Special expanded book review section; Elisha Friedman on what Reb Hayyim Brisker sought and found in Rambam; Hillel Zeitlin ‘s encounters with Rav Kook and R. Sonnenfeld. Also, dive into the unlocked Winter 2024 issue with its reflective essays on the War.
July 14, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 14, 2024
Among the most divisive issues perennially facing the State of Israel is the blanket exemption of Haredim from military or national service. While this issue has long roiled Israeli society, the crisis situation the nation finds itself in since October 7th casts it in a new and existentially perilous light. Tamir Granot offers thoughts about why it’s so hard for different sides to even find a common framework in which to argue—and offers a suggestion for a way forward to a common future.
July 11, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 11, 2024
Those interested in the interaction of religion and state have been captivated these last few weeks (in the way train wrecks draw our attention) by the byzantine delays in elections for the Israeli Chief Rabbinate—which for the first time in its history is doubly vacant with neither Ashkenazi nor Sefardi Chiefs. Jeffrey Saks examines a chapter in Rabbi Soloveitchik’s biography, and his flirtation with the position in the early 1960s, which reminds us just how far we are from the Rav’s vision of what a Chief Rabbi might be.
July 8, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 8, 2024
Tomorrow (3 Tammuz) marks the 30th yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt”l. In his memory, read an archived TRADITION essay published 60+ years ago for the 150th yahrzeit of his forebear, the Ba’al HaTanya—founder of Chabad Hasidut. Irving Block considered the character of the “Benoni” and his role in the psychological theories of Chabad.
July 7, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 7, 2024
Religion in the classroom is back in the news with Louisiana displaying the Ten Commandments, Oklahoma sticking schoolrooms with Holy Bibles, and the Supreme Court changing tack on the issues. Law scholar Michael A. Helfand considers what Orthodoxy’s attitude to these new trends might be in light of an archived sermon from TRADITION’s founding editor, Rabbi Norman Lamm.
July 3, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 3, 2024
TRADITION wraps up this year’s installment of our Editorial Board’s selections for recommended summer reading. Read the final round of endorsements – and discover the winner of our contest to predict the most picks!