December 3, 2021

Mrs. Cooperman’s Shabbat

Mrs. Cooperman wishes all readers of TRADITION a good Shabbos Rosh Hodesh Hannuka! Revisit her classic wisdom for this Shabbat in the timeless essay of our esteemed editor emeritus, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman.
December 2, 2021

The BEST: The Oxbow

Thomas Cole’s masterpiece landscape, “The Oxbow,” is a meditation on the balance and tension between untamed chaos and balanced order. In Emma Horowitz’s reading it also casts a ray of sunlight on the polarities of faith in the Divine and the impulse to human endeavor – in this week’s “The BEST.”
November 30, 2021

PODCAST: In Praise of Peshara

In “In Praise of Peshara,” R. Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg zt”l, outlines the many practical advantages of deciding Beit Din cases according to principles of equity or compromise, and not simply according to strict halakha (din). This essay is an excellent introduction to understand R. Zalman Nechemiah’s halakhic thought and offers insight to the mind of one of our generation’s most significant halakhists. In this episode of the TRADITION Podcast R. Yona Reiss and R. Daniel Z. Feldman discuss the article, unpack its ideas, and enable greater understanding of the issues.
November 28, 2021

Putting God at the Center: The Life of R. Gedalia Dov Schwartz 

R. Gedalia Dov Schwartz zt"l, late Av Beit Din of the Beit Din of America, and a mentor to the American rabbinate at large, led a God-centered life and inspired us to strive for one as well. Hanan Balk shares memories of R. Schwartz on his first yahrzeit, observed today.