TRADITION Questions

Noting the importance of the kingship theme on Rosh Hashana, Chaim Strauchler questions how the coronation of a new king in the Court of St. James will affect our prayers this year. Relating to traditions that emphasize the participatory character of Divine kingship, he questions how kingship as an idea influences Jewish political discourse.
September 14, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: The Wish for Kings

Chaim Strauchler questions some of the fanfare within the modern Jewish wedding. Focusing on the near-universal practice of rising for the bride and groom during the procession, he questions the practice’s source and what it says about celebrity culture’s connection to religious community.
August 31, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Standing at Weddings

Siddur apps prompt Chaim Strauchler to question how new technology affects our attachment to holiness in the physical world. We designate our siddurim as sifrei kodesh – holy books; we don’t do the same for our devices. Should we?
August 17, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Kissing a Torah App

A recent study shows that house color décor influences perceived property values. How does design affect our perception of our shuls and schools as trendy and relevant or outdated and passé? This is a particular challenge for institutions whose identities are closely connected to their modernity, or alternatively, to a sense of tradition. Chaim Strauchler asks if we should be playing these color wars—and at what cost?
August 3, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Color Games

Chaim Strauchler discovers messages and questions about modern Shabbat teen culture in a new music video – this week in TRADITION Questions.
July 13, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Microcosms of Worlds

Chaim Strauchler calls for more halakhic questions on gun ownership as he discusses the emergence of Jewish gun clubs and their roots in Jewish thought—this week in Tradition Questions. 
June 22, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Gun Clubs

In this week’s Tradition Questions, Chaim Strauchler considers a failed addition to the modern kosher diet. Looking at the locust as a case study, he asks why do some new foods make it and others do not.
June 8, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: The Orthodox Omnivore

What can a mysterious item pulled from a Lakewood online auction site teach about growing wealth in American Orthodox life today? Chaim Strauchler offers a suggestion based on conversations from the TRADITION Today Summit on material success and its challenges.
May 4, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: A Gadol’s Pants

“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 20, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Orthodox Influencers’ Influence

Does the rise of the Men's Seder suggest that Modern Orthodox men are lonely? Tzvi Sinensky answers yes, in this new TRADITIONS QUESTIONS column, arguing that alongside efforts to cultivate more entry points for women, Modern Orthodox communities must do more to meet our men's unique social and spiritual needs. 
March 9, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: The Man’s Seder

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.
March 2, 2023

TRADITION QUESTIONS: The “Jews In” Genre

Chaim Strauchler initiates the Tradition Questions Project with a reflection on the physical dimensions of Torah scrolls. They’re getting smaller. He suggests that this may be a problem: This change, while facilitating admirable popular contact with Torah scrolls, is not without halakhic problems. For our purposes it opens an array of questions, including: Who counts as an “important person”? Can such an idea persist in contemporary society? How does this trend relate to privatization of what were once communal objects (and norms)?
November 24, 2022

TRADITION QUESTIONS: Inconvenient & Convenient Torah

This week, we launch a new digital feature, TRADITION Questions. Associate Editor Chaim Strauchler introduces the column: “We hope that TRADITION Questions will gather thoughtful reflection on contemporary social phenomena within our Jewish communities with a spirit of curious introspection. These questions will spark conversations among our readers and within those communities about failures and successes, risks and opportunities.”
November 17, 2022

TRADITION Questions: Introduction

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