Focusing on Function: Women’s Leadership Roles by Nathaniel Helfgot

The following is an edited version of my initial remarks at a panel on Women’s Leadership Roles that was held on the first day of the RCA convention on Sunday, April 25, 2010. The panel consisted of Rabbi Michael Broyde, Rabbi Gidon Rothstein, Dr. Deena Zimmerman and myself. It was conceived and moderated by Rabbi [...]

Missing the Point of Holidays: Chametz and Kitniyot on Passover & Torah and Bikkurim on Shavuot by Gidon Rothstein

Mistakes are sometimes self-contained, so that they affect nothing other than the issue they address.  Sometimes, though, mistakes—or even just slight misrepresentations of the truth—feed on themselves and end up overshadowing or obscuring important other truths.  Pesach and Shavuot, for me personally, are among the times when the latter is true, when our attachment to [...]

From Our Archives: In Honor of Israel Independence Day

Redemption as Responsibility by Yuval Cherlow (39:3, Fall 2006) On the Shoulders of a Giant:  Looking Back, Yet Looking Forward by Nathaniel Helfgot (39:3, Fall 2006) The Love of Israel as a Factor in Halakhic Decision Making in the Works of Rabbi Benzion Uziel by Hayyim David Halevy (24:3, Spring 1989) Arms Transfers, the State [...]

Books of Interest: Festchrifts for Rabbi Haskel Lookstein and Rabbi Bernard Lander

Rav Chesed:  Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein, ed. Rafael Medoff, Ktav Publishing, 2009 (2 volumes). Turim:  Studies in Jewish History and Literature Presented to Dr. Bernard Lander, ed. Michael A. Shmidman, Touro College Press / Ktav, 2008 (2 volumes). Two recent two-volume festchrifts were recently released in honor of two important Jewish communal [...]

Struggling with Books and Teachers: R’ Chaim Volozhiner’s Commentary to Avot 1:4 by Aryeh Klapper

משנה מסכת אבות פרק א:ד יוסי בן יועזר אומר: יהי ביתך בית ועד לחכמים, והוי מתאבק בעפר רגליהם, והוי שותה בצמא את דבריהם:  רוח חיים לאבות א:ד יהי ביתך בית ועד כו’ – יתכן לפרש כי במ”ח דברים שהתורה ניקנית בהם, כמבואר לקמן, א’ מהם הוא המחכים את רבותיו ע”י שאלותיו החריפים וממילא רווחא שמעתתא [...]

From Our Archives: Music During Sefirah

In 2008, Rabbi Moshe Bleich published in Tradition (41:1) a survey of halakhic positions regarding listening to music during the period of Sefirat ha-Omer (and the three weeks), which led to further correspondence between him and Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot regarding Rabbi Soloveitchik’s opinion. In addition to the positions cited in the article, one should add the recently [...]

From Our Archives: In Memory of Rav Soloveitchik zt”l

In commemoration of Rav Soloveitchik zt”l’s yahrzeit, please see Walter Wurzburger, “Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik as Posek of Post-Modern Orthodoxy,”  Tradition 29:1 (1994). We would also like to remind our readers that all of the Rav’s articles which he originally published in Tradition are available for free download on the archives page of Tradition’s website.  Scroll [...]