Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought is a quarterly Orthodox Jewish peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Rabbinical Council of America. It...
What is the purpose of forgiveness? How necessary is it to maintain working social order – within the body politic or within the smaller circles of religious community or family? Is forgiveness the work and responsibility of the offender (to seek it) or the offended party (to willfully grant it)? We live with these issues daily, often struggling with them in the messiness and complexity of human relationships, and while we’re aware of the halakhic and philosophical writings that circle the topic, how often do we let them penetrate our actual behavior?
In a remarkable new essay appearing in TRADITION (Fall 2024), Neti Penstein explores the interplay of halakhic sources in the writings of Maimonides, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and others, and brings her analysis of that wisdom to bear in puzzling out and offering a solution to a particular 50-year-old paradox first presented by the philosopher Aurel Kolnai (1900-1973). Penstein’s work reminds us of the Rav’s closing remark in “The Halakhic Mind”: “Out of the sources of Halakhah, a new worldview awaits formulation,” and her essay collapses the barrier between halakhic sources and philosophical insights.
Read “Forgiveness: A Philosophical Analysis of the Halakhic Sources” TRADITION (Fall 2024).
Neti Penstein is a graduate of Princeton University, where she studied philosophy. She is currently completing an MA in Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School and is studying in its Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud Studies. In this episode of the Tradition Podcast she joins TRADITION’s editor, Jeffrey Saks, to discuss her work, her assessment of philosophical thinking in today’s Modern Orthodox community, and why, if done correctly, there’s nothing more practical than philosophical thinking for our actual lived experience.
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43:36
War Writing Week
R. Jonathan Sacks observed that “Jews have survived catastrophe after catastrophe, in a way unparalleled by any other culture. In each case, they did more than survive. Every tragedy in Jewish history was followed by a new wave of creativity.” Even at this early date, we have begun to witness the emergence of creative responses to the events of Simchat Torah 2023 and its long aftermath. That some of the more significant products have been delivered from within our own Orthodox community, both in Israel and abroad, makes these works especially worthy of our attention, and this week TraditionOnline ran a series of excerpts from three new books that have been written and published from within the fog of war; each aiming to offer religious insight and respond to the traumas of our collective Jewish experiences since Simchat Torah 2023. In this podcast we chat with those three authors about their writing, the challenge of responding “from the gut” in real time, and how powerful and responsive works of this nature impact in their moment and resonate across the years. Our guests are:
Erica Brown, “Morning Has Broken: Faith After October 7th” (Toby Press).
Rachel Sharansky Danziger discussing the tefillot she contributed to “Az Nashir—We Will Sing Again: Women’s Prayers for Our Time of Need,” compiled and edited by Shira Lankin Sheps, Rachel Sharansky Danziger, and Anne Gordon (Shvilli Center).
Moshe Taragin, “Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below” (Yeshivat Har Etzion & Kodesh Press).
As many readers and listeners know, the son of R. Moshe and Atara Taragin was badly wounded in Lebanon. Please pray for Noam Avraham ben Atara Shlomit along with all of Israel’s soldiers, citizens, and the entirety of the Jewish people.
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1:05:11
Maimonides as Rabbi and Philosopher
TRADITION’s Summer 2024 issue contained expanded book review coverage including a review by Menachem Kellner of ArtScroll’s new anthology of Maimonidean philosophy, Kisvei HaRambam: Writings of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon – The Rambam, translated, annotated, and elucidated by R. Yehuda Meir Keilson. For TraditionOnline Kellner profiled The Guide to the Perplexed: A New Translation, translated and with a commentary by Lenn E. Goodman and Philip I. Lieberman (Stanford University Press), claiming it is destined to become the new standard for all engagement with the Guide in English.
Throughout much of his academic career Kellner has been reminding the academic community that Rambam was also a rabbi, drawing profoundly on the rabbinic literature and embodying and promoting halakhic commitment. In the opposite direction, he hopes that more traditional audiences will increase their awareness of Maimonides as a thinker deeply rooted in the Arabic philosophical language and tradition of his day. With critical reservations in place, he draws our attention to these works under review as exemplars of positive movement on these fronts. In this podcast conversation Kellner joins our editor Jeffrey Saks to discuss these books and his reviews, and the two go off on a tangent about how he got into this business in the first place (and the impact of his move to Israel in 1980 had on the shape of his academic interests and desire to communicate his positions to a larger Jewish and general audience outside of the ivory tower).
Menachem Kellner is Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa and founding chair of Shalem College’s Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought.
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50:23
The Ideology of Hesder Revisited
TRADITION and the Rabbinical Council of America recently hosted R. Mosheh Lichtenstein, Rosh Yeshivat Har Etzion, for a conversation revisiting a classic essay from our archives: R. Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, “The Ideology of Hesder” (TRADITION, Fall 1981), using it as a lens to explore contemporary issues in Israeli religious and civilian life and society and the particular challenges of the current war.
Introduction: R. Menachem Penner, Executive Vice-President, RCA
Moderator: R. Jeffrey Saks, Editor, TRADITION
Together we considered the complex relationship between yeshiva study and army service embodied by the Hesder movement; how the 40 years since the original essay’s publication may have strengthened or weakened its message; what is the ideal role for Religious Zionism to play in Israel’s contentious present moment and how we have grown simultaneously closer and further from those on our left and it right; how do we assess trends on the scene such as the rise of the Mekhinot, and the ongoing and current strife surrounding the Haredi military exemption and draft. R. Lichtenstein spoke candidly and personally about the traumas of this year, and the sacrifice of the lives of numerous precious students.
Watch a video recording of the event.
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1:18:24
The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic
TRADITION’s recent Summer 2024 issue contained expanded book review coverage including a review by Yitzhak Blau on Gila Fine’s new “The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud” (Maggid Books & Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies).
Blau says this book carries the rare distinction of breaking new ground in two very different fields: the rabbinic view of women and the tools of aggadic interpretation. While some scholars see Hazal as holding an almost uniformly negative attitude toward women, and others fail to acknowledge any conflicts between the rabbinic tradition and contemporary sensibilities, Blau suggests Fine presents a more balanced outlook. We thought it would be instructive to bring the author and the reviewer (himself an accomplished interpreter of rabbinic aggada) together for a conversation. They discuss the book and touch on the relationship between Biblical and Talmudic narrative and teaching values through aggada. Read Yitzchak Blau’s review of “The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic“.
Gila Fine lectures in a variety of settings including Pardes Institute and Midreshet Amudim, exploring the tales of the Talmud through philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and culture (both high and pop). Her published work has been featured in many platforms including our own pages of TRADITION. Yitzchak Blau, associate editor of TRADITION, is Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem.
Watch a video recording of this conversation.
Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought is a quarterly Orthodox Jewish peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Rabbinical Council of America. It covers a range of topics including philosophy and theology, history, law, and ethics.
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