April 27, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 27, 2023
Michal Tikochinsky’s book on the important 19th-century rabbinic work Minhat Hinukh fills in a gap in academic Jewish scholarship, and offers a sweeping portrait of a work much treasured in the beit midrash. Yitzchak Blau returns with Alt+Shift, helping the Anglo sphere to gain insight into worthwhile material available only in Hebrew.
April 23, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 23, 2023
Originally published in 1913, Rav Kook’s short essay “The Souls of the World of Chaos” was a response to the young Russian Jewish immigrants to Eretz Yisrael, those ideological pioneers espousing socialism while rebelling against religious tradition—“a young generation who, in their wild idealism and relentless search for unbridled freedom, had thrown off what they perceived as the shackles of religion.” Steven Gotlib introduces us to Bezalel Naor’s edition of this important essay—Naor’s latest installment in his growing body of elucidated translations of Rav Kook’s writing.
April 20, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 20, 2023
“Tradition Questions” returns with Zissy Turner’s influential inquiry into Orthodox “Influencers.” What is gained and lost with the cadre of social media mavens, mainly women, to whom large swaths of our community have granted influence?
April 16, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 16, 2023
Our editor, Jeffrey Saks, offers this audio version of his Editor’s Note introducing TRADITION’s special issue on the thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l. In Saks’ essay, “We Read the Rav to Know We Are Not Alone in Loneliness,” he shares his own personal encounter with the Rav’s writings at a pivotal moment in his religious development.
April 9, 2023
Published by Jeffrey Saks at April 9, 2023
As we mark the Rav's 30th yahrzeit today (18 Nisan) we also remember his wife, Dr. Tonya Soloveitchik, "A woman of great courage, sublime dignity, total commitment, and uncompromising truthfulness." Read the biographical sketch penned by their daughter, Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein, about her mother's contributions to Jewish education.
April 5, 2023
Published by Jeffrey Saks at April 5, 2023
As the TRADITION editorial office closes for Passover, we leave you with these highlights from our 60+ years of archived essays. Enjoy this reading over Yom Tov – we hope all our readers will be celebrating a Hag Kasher veSameah in good health and in the company of loved ones.
April 4, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 4, 2023
With the goal of honoring Rabbi Soloveitchik’s myriad contributions to the spiritual and intellectual life of our community and the Jewish world, TRADITION 55:2 (Spring 2023) is being released as a special 230-page exploring his legacy. The issue, edited by Jeffrey Saks, containing essays by leading figures in the world of Jewish life and ideas, focuses on the wide-ranging areas of R. Soloveitchik’s writing, assessing his lasting contributions to Jewish thought through the prism of his prolific works.
April 2, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at April 2, 2023
A highlight of this week’s Passover observances is the recounting of the biblical Ten Plagues. In an interesting new book, Dr. Jeremy Brown considers the Eleventh Plague, a kind of catch-all phrase he uses to explore how Jews as a people and Judaism as a religious tradition have encountered and responded to plagues, disease, and pandemics from the Bible right up to our own days of COVID-19.
March 30, 2023
Published by Tradition Online at March 30, 2023
In reviewing R. Yoel Bin-Nun’s “Zakhor veShamor,” Yitzchak Blau demonstrates how the book’s topic plays to the author’s strengths and interests, as it explores the Jewish calendar and holiday cycle through the prism of the agricultural reality in the Land of Israel. In its pages we encounter one of our era’s greatest teachers of Tanakh apply his fertile mind to scripture, Jewish history, and our current situation.