May 5, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at May 5, 2024
In his sophisticated and immensely erudite new book of essays, Daniel Sperber argues powerfully that it is difficult to justify eating meat produced by modern industrial farming methods, on grounds of both kashrut and ethics. Yedidya Sinclair suggests that Sperber's book makes a strong case for the interwovenness of ethics with the halakhot of kashrut, persuasively arguing that ecology and environmentalism should be higher priorities in the Jewish world.
May 2, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at May 2, 2024
The Hebrew anthology “One Day in October” is a powerful collection of forty stories from October 7th that inspires and depresses, fills the reader with hope, as it makes him or her cry. Yitzchak Blau shows how editors Yair Agmon and Oriyah Mevorach skillfully transformed these accounts into narrative chapters which will serve as a “first draft” in documenting the stories of Simhat Torah 5784.
April 25, 2024
Published by Jeffrey Saks at April 25, 2024
As we mark the Rav's yahrzeit on 18 Nissan (Friday, April 26) we revisit last year's special issue marking his 120th birthday and 30th year since his passing. With the goal of honoring Rabbi Soloveitchik's myriad contributions to the spiritual and intellectual life of our community and the Jewish world, last year TRADITION released as a special 230-page exploring his legacy. The issue, edited by Jeffrey Saks, containing essays by leading figures in the world of Jewish life and ideas, focuses on the wide-ranging areas of R. Soloveitchik's writing, assessing his lasting contributions to Jewish thought through the prism of his prolific works. The full issue is available online or order your print copy now. Contributing authors: Mali Brofsky, Shalom Carmy, Zev Eleff, Yocheved Friedman, Nathaniel Helfgot, Yaakov Jaffe, Tovah Lichtenstein, Levi Morrow, Mark Smilowitz, Alex Sztuden, and Shlomo Zuckier.
April 18, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 18, 2024
In our next installment of “Unpacking the Iggerot,” Moshe Kurtz investigates how R. Feinstein adjudicated a contentious dispute over a breakaway minyan, and what it means for the broader topics of economic competition, employment rights, and rabbinic authority.
April 15, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 15, 2024
Following Emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when large numbers of Jews were conscripted into European armies, traditionalist segments perceived army service as a calamity. As demonstrated by Prof. Judith Bleich in an essay from the TRADITION Archives, extreme prejudice and antisemitism persisted in the armed forces and the promise of equality remained an illusion. However, she suggests, casting contemporary military service in the Israeli Army in terms that smack of the Czar’s Army and the cantonist system, especially at a time such as this, completely misses the point.
April 11, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 11, 2024
Judaism’s prominence in modern society as well as new communication technologies create opportunities for those outside Judaism to see what goes on inside. This is both an opportunity and a risk. Chaim Strauchler questions whether this reality requires change in how and what we communicate.
April 9, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 9, 2024
Jewish schoolchildren in New Jersey set up a popcorn stand to raise money to send pizza to Israeli soldiers. Avraham Stav got a lump in his throat as he swallowed his slice. In this next dispatch from the frontline, he describes the meaningfulness and sense of worldwide Jewish connection that these acts of support and encouragement have generated—flowing from the Diaspora to Israel and hopefully in the reciprocal direction as well.
April 7, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 7, 2024
Homes, be they our private homes, the Mishkan, or the State of Israel, are formed of promises, and October 7th challenged these promises and undermined our understanding of ourselves. As we hit the 6-month mark of this war and as we stumble through both horror and uncertainty, Rachel Sharansky Danziger considers how the Book of Leviticus offers comfort, and a way to visualize the path ahead.
April 4, 2024
Published by Tradition Online at April 4, 2024
Should I wear a kippa in today’s climate? This is a question being asked by many Jewish men. In this next installment of Moshe Kurtz’s new TraditionOnline series, “Unpacking the Iggerot,” we go back to the 1970s when many felt they could not cover their heads in the American workplace, and look at how R. Moshe Feinstein navigated a conflict between practical necessity and religious imperative with an eye on the long arc of how to best preserve halakhic integrity in American Orthodoxy.