A book like Haim Jachter’s “Bridging Traditions: Demystifying Between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews” may not have been necessary in the Jewish communities of yesteryear, writes Sina Kahen in his review. But with the rise of globalization, mass migration, and the re-establishment of the State of Israel, we have fortunately witnessed the merging of diverse branches of the Jewish tree. This well-sourced and lucid work presents rich and clear discussion on topics that span the Shulhan Arukh.

The opening sections of the Haggada seem to lack the organizing structure that characterizes the Seder. At first glance, the opening anecdotes and stories are jarringly disjointed and chaotic. But Marc Herman shows that, upon closer analysis, the beginning of the Haggada can be read as a how-to manual for the fulfillment of the commandment to recount the Exodus from Egypt.

Simcha Fishbane’s new book sets out to understand how Hayei Adam went from being a widely popular halakhic work among laymen, although largely ignored by the rabbinic establishment of its day, to a paradoxical mirror status in our own. Gidon Rothstein reviews…

Surveying the mid-twentieth century American Jewish community from his pulpit, R. Norman Lamm mined the Passover story for two purposes – to make the case for royal humility, a constant vacillation between the confidence of freedom and the modesty of servitude, and as a call for a renewed and passionate Jewish observance. Stuart W. Halpern examines these themes as reflected in R. Lamm’s “The Royal Table.”