July 8, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at July 8, 2021
Rousseau’s “Social Contract” does not alienate the individual’s power of self-government, but preserves it in elevated form. Society forms not to avoid violence, but so that individuals can better meet the challenges of living through collaboration, innovation, and shared knowledge. It’s Rabbi Sacks’ concept of a politics of “We instead of Me” writes Isaac Fried in this week’s The BEST.
July 6, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at July 6, 2021
Yaakov Blau presents a “sugya approach” to offer a richer view of Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh’s fate—the story of a towering figure of talmudic creativity who ultimately forgot his learning.
July 4, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at July 4, 2021
The recent appearance of “The Valediction of Moses” by Idan Dershowitz gained widespread attention in the popular press worldwide – an unusual feat for a work of biblical scholarship published by an academic press. Dershowitz claims that a Dead Sea scroll containing passages of Deuteronomy, long regarded as a famous forgery, is in fact an authentic copy and the oldest extant biblical text. R. Yoel Bin-Nun helps us make sense of the matter…
July 1, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at July 1, 2021
TRADITION wraps up this year’s installment of our Editorial Board’s selections for recommended summer reading. Read the third and final round of recommendations – and discover the winner of our contest to predict the most picks!
June 29, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at June 29, 2021
TRADITION continues its yearly tradition of turning to our esteemed editorial board for endorsements for summer reading. Read the second of our three installments.
June 27, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at June 27, 2021
TRADITION mourns and remembers Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka, z”l, our longtime editorial board member and an eloquent public intellectual.
June 27, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at June 27, 2021
TRADITION continues its yearly tradition of turning to our esteemed editorial board for endorsements for summer reading. Some of the picks could easily be predicted, others are quite surprising, all are worthy of your attention. Read the first of three installments.
June 24, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at June 24, 2021
Tolstoy’s challenges us to struggle against material prosperity and a save-the-world politics that has made “social progress” priests of every college graduate and pop star. Yakov Danishevky explains why Tolstoy’s “Confession is The BEST because it exposes the underbelly of high-class culture: status, self-righteousness, and dogmatism.
June 21, 2021
Published by Tradition Online at June 21, 2021
Among the more bizarre (Jewish) events of our COVID days was a wedding held under a traditional bridal canopy in one of Bnai Brak’s cemeteries—a very old custom which was believed to potentially ward off the plague. Jeremy Brown explores the origins and surprising history of the unusual “Black Wedding.”