Rav Kook’s slim volume of personal mediations, “Hadarav,” was seen as groundbreaking and revolutionary when first published in 1998. The arrival of an English edition by Bezalel Naor (Maggid Books) is an occasion to examine trends in the thought and impact of Rav Kook, and the arrival of new posthumous publications by Rav Kook in the past quarter century. Zohar Maor profiles the new edition of “Hadarav” and considers transitions in Israeli society in the years since its first arrival.

It may come as a surprise that the Etrog is not native to the Land of Israel, but originated in Southeast Asia. How can we square our belief in the traditions of the Oral Law with the findings of history, botany, and agriculture that the Sukkot citron reached Eretz Yisrael only just prior to the Second Temple Era? Natan Slifkin offers an intriguing solution.

Our thrice-daily prayers conclude with Alenu’s call-back to the eschatological hope that in the future: “God shall be One and his Name One.” This prophetic vision serves as the animating theme of a new collection of essays, “God Shall Be One: Reenvisioning Judaism’s Approach to Other Religions” (Ohr Torah Stone & Maggid Books). One chapter, authored by Yakov Nagen, originally appeared in TRADITION as “Sharing Torah with the World.” We are happy to re-share it with our readers as we draw attention to its place in this new book.

Rabbi Soloveitchik advocated for strict limits on interfaith dialogue. Two recent books explore this issue in the thought of rabbis who, though influenced by the Rav, engaged in and sought halakhic mandates for such dialogue. Eliezer Finkelman reviews how Daniel Ross Goodman’s “Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America” (Alabama UP) shows how his subjects broke with the Rav, each in his own way. Alon Goshen-Gottstein’s “Covenant & World Religions” (Littman Library), challenges Sacks and Greenberg both for their justification and the limitations of their openness to other faiths.

“Az Nashir—We Will Sing Again” is an anthology of prayers written by 55 Jewish women in Israel responding to the experiences and struggles of living in Israel in a post-October 7th world. These prayers have given voice to the myriad of complex emotions, ideas, needs, and hopes that have arisen in our time. In an excerpt presented at TraditionOnline, Rachel Sharansky Danziger offers two powerful prayers—for brotherhood and for focus.

For the first offering in this week’s TraditionOnline “War Writing” series, we share a sample chapter from Erica Brown’s meditative “Morning Has Broken: Faith After October 7th.” In this chapter, “Getting Better to Get Worse,” the author braids personal reflections and Jewish texts about faith, unity, pain, and hope during this war in Israel and in response to antisemitism everywhere.