August 15, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 15, 2024
May a child assume the consequences of their parents’ sins? Is a child obligated to do so? In this installment of Unpacking the Iggerot, Moshe Kurtz shares a fascinating debate between Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and his contemporaries about the nature of vicarious punishment.
August 12, 2024
Published by Jeffrey Saks at August 12, 2024
Certain that this will provide a meaningful read for Tisha B’Av we share Dr. Yael Ziegler’s essay “The Midrashic Filling of Eikha’s Void.” This essay appeared in TRADITION’s Summer 2020 issue and subsequently in Dr. Ziegler's "Lamentations: Faith in a Turbulent World."
August 11, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 11, 2024
Johnny Solomon reviews Raphael Zarum’s approach to religion and science as expressed in his “Questioning Belief: Torah and Tradition in an Age of Doubt” (Maggid Books) by situating it within an arc of earlier works penned by his London-based predecessors: Rabbis Michael Friedländer, Isidore Epstein, and Jonathan Sacks. Through doing so, he explains what makes “Questioning Belief” unique, and why this book is a refreshing addition to the Jewish bookshelf.
August 8, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 8, 2024
Following in the footsteps of Avraham Avinu and Rambam, new Jewish brands seek to share Hashem’s message far and wide. With stylish consumer goods, they encourage consumers to identify their religious values. Chaim Strauchler questions the risks and opportunities within this new form of religious messaging.
August 6, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 6, 2024
TRADITION’s recent Summer 2024 issue contained expanded book review coverage—what an array of fascinating topics, authors, and reviewers: How did Hazal read Talmudic women? What results when physicists and Haredim read Maimonides? Military ethics and morality, origins of Orthodoxy, and R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s teachings on halakhic values.
August 3, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 3, 2024
In the area of Jewish medical ethics brain death is the topic which just will not die. No other rabbinic figure’s opinion has factored in quite so significantly on the subject as R. Moshe Feinstein zt”l. However his position has been intensely debated over the years. In a recent piece of research which surfaces some relevant new points of evidence, Dr. Noam Stadlan offers a re-understanding of R. Feinstein’s ruling, with various implications for end-of-life care and organ donation. In this episode of the Tradition Podcast, Stadlan joins our editor, Jeffrey Saks, to discuss the article, as well as larger trends in the field of Jewish medical ethics, the partnership that should exist between physicians and medical research on one hand with poskim on the other, and why our readers are perennially interested in the field of medical halakha.
August 1, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at August 1, 2024
Can I donate my way out of Divine punishment? Is it un-Jewish to confess to a member of the clergy? In this installment of “Unpacking the Iggerot,” Moshe Kurtz distills Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s approach to fasting, repentance, penance and much more.
July 30, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 30, 2024
When approaching the philosophy of Maimonides, we mustn’t forget that the great follower of Aristotle was “also” a rabbi. So cautions Menachem Kellner, by way of profiling and praising the new translation of the “Guide to the Perplexed” by Lenn Goodman and Philip Lieberman. The new work is destined to supplant the longtime standard English version by Shlomo Pines. In drawing comparisons between the two editions Kellner shows how the Guide guides one to the proper worship God.
July 28, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at July 28, 2024
TRADITION’s seasonal roundup of noteworthy new titles in Jewish studies and learning, with offerings on Freud’s Jewish reception, more Rav Kook treasures translated, guides to the Guide, Siddur, Isaiah, and more….