Halakha and Kabbalah: Rabbi Joseph Karo’s Shulchan Aruch and Magid Mesharim by Shlomo Brody

Amongst the great kabbalists and legalists produced in 16th century Safed, R. Yosef Karo clearly stands out as one of, if not the, most influential figure.  Though his legal compendium Bet Yosef and code Shulchan Aruch, Karo helped shape the course of halakha for the next five centuries.  Karo produced these works while the Zohar’s [...]

The Kosher Switch: A Response from the Tzomet Institute’s Rabbi Yisrael Rosen

The rabbinic world and blogosophere (see, for example, here) has been abuzz about the propriety of the Kosher Switch, which its producers claim allows one to halakhically turn on and off lights on shabbat.  Attached here is the Hebrew response of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the prominent engineer who heads the Tzomet Institute, which includes (signed) [...]

From Our Archives: Shavuot and BeHa’alotcha

Particularly appropriate for this week is a close reading of the Humash by Rabbi Zvi Grumet.  Rabbi Grumet’s article, “WITHIN AND WITHOUT OUR ENCAMPMENT IN THE DESERT: The Ambivalent Acceptance of a Biblical Convert” (Spring 1994 28:3), examines the account of Moshe’s conversations with his father-in-law, in which they discuss the latter’s conversion to a [...]

From Our Archives: Yom Yerushalayim by Yonatan Kohn

 
On the eve of Yom Yerushalayim, it is only natural to reflect upon the monumental events of the Six Day War and their wider implications.  Tradition published two symposia surrounding the theological implications of the war and the larger issue of G-d’s hand in history.  The first, published in the summer of 1968, takes the [...]

From Our Archives: In Memory of Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine by Yonatan Kohn

This past week marked the shloshim for Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine, an Associate Editor of Tradition, the Samson and Halina Bitensky Professor of Economics at Yeshiva University, and spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY. Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Daniel Rapp wrote a touching tribute, available here.
 Rabbi Dr. Levine was widely respected [...]

The Ben Ish Hai and Women’s Hair Covering: An Interesting Case of Censorship? by Jacob Sasson

While the nature of the obligation for married women to cover their hair has long been a subject of debate, most poskim agree that some degree of obligation exists, regardless of time or place.  Nonetheless, a number of poskim have dissented from that conventional position for a variety of reasons. 
In the past several years, Rabbi [...]

From Our Archives: Religious Responses to Jewish Statehood by Immanuel Jakobovits

Responses to Jewish Statehood (Fall 1982) 
by Immanuel Jakobovits

In his article, the late Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, z”l, seeks to identify the different streams of Orthodox Jewry in relation to their stance on the modern State of Israel.  His survey, anchored in robust print sources, outlines the major perspectives on the position [...]

Parashat Emor: Shabbat as Part of Judaism’s Overall Dialectic by Yaakov Bieler

Various references to Shabbat within the Tora.
“Shabbat” appears in every book of the Tora,[1] and prior to Parashat Emor in VaYikra, where we read the following,
VaYikra 23:3
Six days you shall do creative activity, and on the seventh day “Shabbat Shabbaton”, a holy convocation, all creative activity you shall not do. It is Shabbat to HaShem [...]

Books of Interest: New Publications on Tefilla by Shlomo Brody

The Orthodox book market has been blessed with a few new important books on the history of Jewish prayer, each of which are worthy of study and further reflect larger questions for study. 
Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber’s book, On Changes in Jewish Liturgy: Options and Limitations (Urim Publications, 2010) is a thought-provoking work on the history [...]

From Our Archives: Circumcision and Modern Technology

Laser Circumcision by J. David Bleich
The Use of Anesthesia in Circumcision:  A Re-Evaluation of the Halakhic Sources by Edward Reichman and Fred Rosner
Hypospadias and Circumcision by Rabbi J. David Bleich
The Making of Metzitzah – 1972 by Yehuda Pesach Shields
- Shlomo Brody

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