February 1, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at February 1, 2024
Bar and Bat Mitzva celebrations now include custom-designed logos that families splash across invitations, party décor, and swag. While past celebrations might have reached back to childhood, today’s logos often evoke consumer brands and corporate culture. Chaim Strauchler asks about what messages this sends to our children in these critical moments of spiritual and cultural transmission?
January 30, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 30, 2024
TRADITION and Hakirah are proud to partner in publishing “The Jewish Religious Experience from Halakhah, Aggadah and Kabbalah: Two Series of Lectures by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik,” based on the notes of Rabbis Robert Blau and Yaakov Homnick. Click here for more info and to order your print copy.
January 28, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 28, 2024
Writing from Israel, our editor Jeffrey Saks considers the war’s challenges for our religious community, the heartening reality of Jewish unity, and some sharp questions it all poses for our way forward. Listen to this Audio Editor’s Note accompanying TRADITION’s forthcoming Winter 2024 issue, with special content related to the ongoing war in Gaza.
January 25, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 25, 2024
Yonatan Feintuch’s “Panim el Panim” makes a major contribution to the growing world of aggadic study. He shows how paying attention to halakhic and aggadic context enhances aggadic interpretation and reveals that literary sensitivity to intertextuality, leitwort, and word-plays enriches our reading. Beyond a literary reading, Feintuch outlines varying models for how an aggadic text can impact on the legal discussions in the Talmud.
January 22, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 22, 2024
How many years were the Children of Israel in Egypt? With this week’s Torah reading about the Exodus, follow along as we do the math and consider Daniel Langer’s suggested solution to an age-old question in his recent TRADITION essay, “Solving the Chronological Problem of the Bondage in Egypt” (Summer 2022)—now open access.
January 18, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 18, 2024
An opportunity to both differentiate from general society while acculturating to its happy materialism, yeshiva day schools' mid-winter intercession symbolizes much about contemporary Orthodox Jewish culture in America. Focusing on the idea of leisure, Chaim Strauchler asks how Yeshiva Week will be different this year. How will the ongoing war in Israel change how American Jews experience this break?
January 15, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 15, 2024
TRADITION’s Summer 2023 issue, recently made fully open access, contained a fascinating offering penned by Michael A. Shmidman, our distinguished editor emeritus, titled “Isadore Twersky’s Unique Contribution to the Study of The Guide of the Perplexed”—a presentation and analysis of interlocking components of Rabbi Professor Isadore (Yitzhak) Twersky’s understanding of Maimonides’ formulation of the relationship between law and philosophy, particularly as expressed in the Moreh Nevukhim. In this podcast episode we share the recording of Shmidman’s lecture on which the essay is based, presented at a conference in memory of R. Twersky at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies.
January 11, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 11, 2024
Contemporary Western sexual ethics clashes sharply with traditional Jewish approaches leading many Orthodox authors to address this conflict. In a noteworthy new book, Oriya Mevorach adds a fresh approach—by finding fault with some traditional Jewish discourse about sexuality and at the same time offering a sharp critique of popular Western approaches. In Alt+SHIFT Yitzhak Blau shows how Mevorach’s helpful categories for mapping out the terrain of the discussion are themselves an important contribution to this discussion.
January 8, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at January 8, 2024
University student Mayah Bernstein utilizes a 1992 TRADITION Symposium reflecting upon the Six Day War to convey the difference of the Jewish-American college-aged response of 1967 with that of today. In the current conflict, a disturbing lack of religious mission prevents many youths from As today, we currently lack an overarching sense of religiosity to inform our opinions regarding Israeli sovereignty.