What brought about the moment of redemption from Egypt? Exodus 12 has the Israelites hastily preparing to leave—the display of their eagerness seemingly the necessary prerequisite for their freedom—while God passes-over above, busy with the slaying of Egyptian firstborn sons. The midrash, however, suggests that God, too, was acting with haste, eager to bring about the redemption. Ilana Goldstein Saks shows how Rashi’s interpretation offers a creative reworking of the midrash which both incorporates the midrash and remains true to the meaning of the biblical text, and gets to the very heart of ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

“This war opened a new channel for me to connect with our religious world. I look at my duties and halakhic habits with new eyes,” writes Avraham Stav in another dispatch from the war. How do halakha, Torah study, and especially prayer transform our IDF soldiers and support their mission? How does it turn an army base into a space in which “the Lord your God who walks among you in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you ..read more

TRADITION’s most recent issue features a special section with short reflective essays on the events of October 7th and the ongoing war in Israel. In this episode, two of those authors meet to discuss the topics touched on in those very personal pieces of writing. Chaim Strauchler engages with Alex S. Ozar, who serves as a rabbi with the Orthodox Union’s JLIC and the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale University. Alex’s essay, “War in Israel, in New Haven” captures the raw emotions, trauma, and fear of last Simhat Torah. He wonders: Is the Golden Age of American Jewry, in fact, over? He shar ..read more

In 2017 a stroke deprived Eitan Ashman of many of his language facilities, but not of his mind or passion for Torah. A new Haggadah gathers many sensitive insights crafted by Eitan himself, together with voices of many friends, neighbors, and teachers. Jeffrey Saks writes that because it arrives at a particular moment in which we are all feeling battered and in need of some extra “koach,” these elegantly simple observations on the Haggadah—together with the useful and commonsensical tips to make our Seder more inclusive—are so touching and so powerful ..read more

Responding to Chaim Strauchler’s recent essay about “Ghost Mitzvot” which fell out of use or disappeared and have surprisingly regained popularity in our own era, Baruch Sterman, of the Ptil Tekhelet Institute explains why the “royal and rarest blue” tzitzit strings and the process of producing them may be more of a unique story ..read more

In the mid-1960s R. Moshe Feinstein ruled that a microphone could be used for Megilla reading. In the first entry in our new “Unpacking the Iggerot” series, Moshe Kurtz addresses the implications of this decades-old ruling for issues that arose during COVID-19 and for our current post-pandemic era ..read more