March 26, 2024
In 2017 a stroke deprived Eitan Ashman of many of his language facilities, but not of his mind or passion for Torah. A new Haggadah gathers many sensitive insights crafted by Eitan himself, together with voices of many friends, neighbors, and teachers. Jeffrey Saks writes that because it arrives at a particular moment in which we are all feeling battered and in need of some extra “koach,” these elegantly simple observations on the Haggadah—together with the useful and commonsensical tips to make our Seder more inclusive—are so touching and so powerful.
March 25, 2024
Responding to Chaim Strauchler’s recent essay about “Ghost Mitzvot” which fell out of use or disappeared and have surprisingly regained popularity in our own era, Baruch Sterman, of the Ptil Tekhelet Institute explains why the “royal and rarest blue” tzitzit strings and the process of producing them may be more of a unique story.
March 21, 2024
In the mid-1960s R. Moshe Feinstein ruled that a microphone could be used for Megilla reading. In the first entry in our new “Unpacking the Iggerot” series, Moshe Kurtz addresses the implications of this decades-old ruling for issues that arose during COVID-19 and for our current post-pandemic era.
March 20, 2024
Tomorrow, Ta’anit Esther, 11 Adar II, marks the 57th yahrzeit of Mrs. Tonya Soloveitchik, whom her husband described in the pages of TRADITION as “A woman of great courage, sublime dignity, total commitment, and uncompromising truthfulness.” Mrs. Soloveitchik’s achievements on behalf of Jewish life and education have not been widely known or appreciated in the wider Orthodox community. We were pleased to offer a corrective to the historical record with Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein’s portrait of her mother, “Mrs. Soloveitchik: A Biographical Sketch.”