September 5, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at September 5, 2022
TRADITION’s seasonal roundup of noteworthy new titles in Jewish studies and learning, with offerings on Shabbat’s challenge and contribution to the modern world, mental health and halakha, Hebrew and Yiddish literature, the history of Talmud printing and Hasidic sermons, and more….
September 1, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at September 1, 2022
David Curwin, writing for The BEST, sees a life lesson in juxtaposing the films “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) with “The Irishman” (2019): “The end of each film, with the perspective of decades after those pivotal events, implies that it was the protagonists’ private lives, not their public roles, that really mattered.”
August 30, 2022
Published by Jeffrey Saks at August 30, 2022
Today, 3 Elul, marks the 87th yahrzeit of Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook zt”l. As one of the most significant Jewish thinkers of the modern era it is no surprise that his works have been analyzed, reviewed, and translated in the pages of TRADITION over the years. Visit our archives....
August 28, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 28, 2022
With the arrival of Rosh Hodesh Elul we enter the month of “mercy and forgiveness.” Among the season’s most well-known but challenging customs is the recitation of Selihot. The publication of a new edition of these penitential prayers and piyutim, with an introduction and insightful commentary by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, will enhance our recitation of the Selihot for generations to come. In this excerpt R. Schacter explores themes related to the meaning and force of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy – the central experience of the Selihot prayers.
August 25, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 25, 2022
Yitzchak Blau finds in Marilynne Robinson’s essay collection, “When I Was a Child I Read Books,” an argument for Jewish communities to more forthrightly discussing their shortcomings, even as they defend their faith claims – this week in The BEST.
August 23, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 23, 2022
Through a close reading of Natan Slifkin's new “Rationalism vs. Mysticism: Schisms in Jewish Thought” Alex Ozar aims to get to the bottom of what it means to identify as a "rationalist," what it means to divide the Jewish intellectual world into rationalist and mystical camps, and what's at stake in asserting a "schism" in Jewish thought.
August 21, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 21, 2022
This is an Audio Editor’s Note from TRADITION’s newly released Summer 2022 issue—Rabbi Jeffrey Saks reads his essay “It Takes a Cosmic Village” which introduces a special section on Jewish Universalism.
August 18, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 18, 2022
Na’amit Sturm Nagel writes in The BEST on Eva Hoffman’s portrayal of the immigrant experience after the Holocaust: Movement doesn’t only move forward, and people do not simply work towards a sense of wholeness. Rather, for Hoffman, people and places are meant to be fragmented, as Hoffman concludes: “it is in my misfittings that I fit.”
August 17, 2022
Published by Tradition Online at August 17, 2022
Cosmic Villages; Demonic Letters: TRADITION’s readers, and editor, respond.