TRADITION Passover Archives

As the TRADITION editorial office closes for Passover, we leave you with these highlights from our 60+ years of archived essays (all freely accessible and searchable on our site). 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.

—Yitzchak Blau, On behalf of the TRADITION Editorial Board

• Passover Articles

Hametz and Matza: A Halakhic Perspective (Winter 1965)

Nachum Rabinovich zt”l outlines the halakhot of hametz and matza while also interpreting these mitzvot as conveying a balance between independence and subordination. 

Zekher Liytsiat Mitzrayim: A Sociological Interpretation (Fall 1995)

Chaim Shapiro contrasts Egyptian clergy with kohanim and the role of religion in Egyptian political structures with its role in traditional Jewish society.  

The Odd and Instructive Habits of Non-Observant Jews: A Look at Berit Milah and Pesah (Summer 2008)

Our esteemed editor emeritus, R. Emanuel Feldman, notes many parallels between the commandments of circumcision and Passover and attempts to explain their ongoing popularity amongst secular Jews.  

Digesting the Exodus Narrative – Rav Soloveitchik’s Approach to the Seder Eve (Winter 2008)

Daniel Wolf reviews R. Soloveitchik’s Festival of Freedom,  analyzing the role of the experiential in the Rav’s presentation including relating personal stories, sensory and aesthetic experiences, and encountering the divine. 

Shabbat, Imitatio Dei, and Slavery (Winter 2018)

Joshua H. Rabinowitz explains the prominence of Shabbat after the Exodus as teaching a new model of service rooted in imitatio Dei.    

• The Man Moshe Rabbenu

A Modern Midrash Moshe (Winter 2008)

Hayyim Angel reviews R. Moshe Lichtenstein’s volume on Moshe. He explores the author’s use of midrashic method and analyzes the volume’s approach to Moshe’s maturation as a leader.  

Mi Anokhi? Who Are Moses’ Brethren? (Summer 2016)

Yael Ziegler uses both traditional commentary and modern literary methodology to illustrate the tension in Moshe’s youth between his Egyptian and Jewish identities.   

• The Makkot

The Ten Plagues (Winter 1982)

Norman Fredman explains how the Haggada both divides the plagues into five pairs and into three sets of three. 

The Egyptian Deity in the Ten Plagues (Spring 2015)

Ira Friedman explains the plagues as a theological polemic against the Egyptian God Sekhmet. 

The Makkot, Redux (Spring 2019)

David H. Schwartz argues that the makkot break up into two groups of five and that the seemingly disparate events between the exodus and Sinai refer back to the plagues.