March 2, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at March 2, 2023
Chaim Strauchler returns to TRADITION QUESTIONS by noting the disappearance of a once-popular literary genre that celebrates individual accomplishment through the lens of Jewish collective identity. He attributes this to the growth of “more than” anti-Semitism. He questions the absence of a parallel genre through which we might collectively take responsibility for the damage caused by our co-religionists.
February 27, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at February 27, 2023
God is conspicuously absent in Esther, though He is presumed to work “behind the scenes.” Nava Finkelman considers several other biblical narratives where a character attributes some outcome to God’s intervention, and, by analogy, suggests an overlooked hidden allusion to God in Esther as well.
February 23, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at February 23, 2023
R. Avraham Stav offers weekly insights and moral messages we can glean from all areas of popular culture. Yitzchak Blau, a self-professed skeptic about TV’s worth, along with other aspects of popular culture, admits that he finds Stav’s mining of television and movies to be rewarding—in this week’s Alt+SHIFT.
February 20, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at February 20, 2023
Zachary Truboff’s “Torah Goes Forth From Zion: Essays on the Thought of Rav Kook & Rav Shagar” presents complex material clearly and enjoyably. Todd Berman reviews and recommends that for those seeking an entry point to the works of Rav Kook and especially Rav Shagar, but unable to access them in their original texts, Truboff’s project is highly recommended.
February 16, 2023
Published by Jeffrey Saks at February 16, 2023
Rav Shach’s long impact on Israeli Haredism, and by extension on the political culture of the State, two decades after his passing is the subject of this week’s Alt+SHIFT. Yitzchak Blau considers how the hashkafa and halakhic stances of a person intersect in shaping personality and policy.
February 12, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at February 12, 2023
Prof. Marc B. Shapiro’s recent essay “From the Pages of TRADITION: R. Esriel Hildesheimer on Torah Study for Women” (TRADITION, Summer 2022), is the subject today's TRADITION Podcast. Shapiro joined Jeffrey Saks to discuss R. Hildesheimer’s legacy and that of 19th-century German Orthodoxy; the history of women’s Torah study; trends in Jewish education; and the intersections of Jewish history and thought.
February 9, 2023
Published by Jeffrey Saks at February 9, 2023
Natanel Ellinson’s portrait of divisions in Israeli society suggests a rift between Yehudim (Jews) and Yisraelim (Israelis), each with its own orientation, culture, and values. In this week’s Alt+SHIFT Yitzchak Blau admits some of the diagnosis is useful but overlooks subtleties that we dare not ignore.
February 6, 2023
Published by Jeffrey Saks at February 6, 2023
For close to two decades, the Polish-Jewish journalist and religious intellectual Hillel Zeitlin sought in vain to establish fraternal societies for the spiritual and ethical revival of the Jewish people. “On Select Redeemers,” his final manifesto from June 1939 is a stirring testimony to his resolute faith in the power of individual prayer to affect history. The document, which is presented here for the first time in English, is now open access to our readers appearing in an annotated translation by Jonatan Meir and Samuel Glauber-Zimra.
February 2, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at February 2, 2023
In this week’s Alt+SHIFT installment Yitzchak Blau profiles the columns and commentary of Eden Abitbol, whose writing opens a window into Haredi yeshiva life, its struggles and unique culture – both the manifest and suppressed components of how bachurim seek and maintain individuality within the yeshiva’s regimented collective atmosphere.