Four Facets of the Love of God
In TRADITION’s recent Spring 2020 issue we published an essay by Dr. Yaakov S. Weinstein, a physicist by profession and a new writer to our pages. His essay “Four Facets of the Love of God” explores themes in Ahavat Hashem, drawing on C.S. Lewis’ important work “The Four Loves,” which is a rich portrayal of the multiple types of human and divine love. Lewis, perhaps most well-known for his “Chronicles of Narnia,” was of course a significant 20th century British author, academic and popular theologian. Recently Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, a member of TRADITION’s editorial board and our resident C.S. Lewis expert, had a chance to discuss the article with Dr. Weinstein, and consider the question of how traditional Jewish thought can be substantively enhanced and deepened by an encounter with the writings of C.S. Lewis.
Facing Crisis Together as a Community
Please watch this special Shavuot message from the leadership of TRADITION's publisher, The Rabbinical Council of America - RCA.
Joshua Berman on Biblical Criticism and Historical Truth
Rabbi Prof. Joshua Berman, professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University joins the TRADITION Podcast to discuss his recent book, "Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth, and the Thirteen Principles of Faith" (Maggid Books).
In our Spring 2020 issue, our reviewer, R. Hayyim Angel writes: “Berman’s book is vital for understanding the relationship between faith and academic Bible study, where we can benefit from those texts as useful tools in learning and appreciate the staggering revolution of the Torah within its ancient context. Berman’s book is an important contribution to scholarship, and to our religious pursuit of truth in the context of Tanakh study. He challenges readers to examine critically the assumptions they bring to the text, provides a fresh perspective, and expands our horizons in learning, methodology, and religious growth.”
Berman joins TRADITION’s editor, Jeffrey Saks, to discuss issues of biblical criticism, the relationship of his identity as a leading academic with his role as a person of faith, how being trapped in certain modern assumptions prevent us from properly understanding Tanakh’s unique message as a religious text, and educational challenges that we face if bolstering belief in revelation and the divinity of the Torah. A major theme in the book is the historicity of the Bible, and especially of the Exodus. Readers can access an excerpted chapter introducing this topic in TRADITION (Winter 2020): “But Is It ‘History’?: The Historical Accuracy of Tanakh”
FRIENDSHIP, LONELINESS, AND SHEHEHEYANU POST-COVID
Israeli musician Hanan Ben-Ari captured what Covid-19 has taught us in a recent song: “We thought… what person needs another person?… How you [Covid] have returned sanity, longings for people!" Jonathan Ziring explores the state of friendship and human relationships and imagines how the time of great reunion post-Covid will be filtered through the Shehehyahu blessing. https://traditiononline.org/sheheheyanu-appreciating-friendship-in-the-world-of-zoom/
David Berger: Anti-Semitism and COVID-Libels
Among the troubling phenomenon to which we are witness at this most difficult time of COVID is the appearance of anti-Semitic attitudes and actions – hearkening back to medieval accusations of blood libels well poisonings, and up to contemporary anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric, Jews have often borne the blame of plagues which affected their host societies (even as they themselves were afflicted with black plague, cholera, or today's coronavirus in equal, or sometimes greater, numbers).
In light of these disturbing trends, and in the hopes that we might learn something about our current crisis from the study of history, we turned to Dr. David Berger, Dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, and a longtime member of TRADITION’s editorial board. Dr. Berger has dedicated decades of his distinguished academic career to the study of anti-Semitism and Jewish-Christian interactions. His writings on these topics have recently been gathered in "Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations" (Academic Studies Press).
FROM THE TRADITION ARCHIVES for Parashat Shemini
"Is the Giraffe a Kosher Animal?" asked Rabbi J. David Bleich in this 2001 "Survey of Recent Halakhic Literature" column -- find out here:http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2035/No.%201/Survey%20of%20Recent.pdf
FROM THE TRADITION ARCHIVES
Last week the State of Israel launched the Beresheet Spacecraft scheduled to land on the moon in time for Shabbat HaGadol. What has been said about space exploration in the pages of Tradition? Quite a lot, actually. Start with Rabbi Norman Lamm's classic "The Religious Implications of Extra-Terrestrial Life," TRADITION 7:4 (Winter 1965):http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%207/No.%204/The%20Religious%20Implication.pdf
The Sin of the Golden Calf
FROM THE TRADITION ARCHIVES for Parashat Ki Tisa
At the episode of the Golden Calf are the people of Israel flagrant sinners or abandoned children? Do they receive Moses' rebuke with defiant indifference or great remorse? Is Aaron a leading perpetrator or a coerced victim? Do the Levites embrace their roles as defenders of God with zeal or with pain? Unravel these questions through the midrashic reading which builds on textual cues and tensions embedded in the narrative, in David Flatto’s essay “Golden Sacrifices,” TRADITION 35:4 (Winter 2001) --http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2035/No.%204/Golden%20Sacrifices.pdf
