Tradition Podcast

Among the more well-known features of Prof. Haym Soloveitchik’s “Rupture and Reconstruction” is its description of the shift away from a mimetic tradition, in which people are socialized into a religious community through observation and “imitation” (the same root as mimetic), toward an often more stringent text-based authority. Soloveitchik contended that this was accompanied by a concomitant shift from the community and communal rabbi as role models to a reorientation of the center of gravity around yeshivot and Roshei Yeshiva.

To help us understand this phenomenon and how it plays itself out today, TRADITION’s associate editor, R. Chaim Strauchler chatted with R. Efrem and Rebbetzin Yocheved Goldberg of the Boca Raton Syngogue. They spoke about R. Goldberg’s contribution to our symposium, and Rebbetzin Goldberg’s recent essay about the contemporary role of the rabbi’s wife and family as communal role models. They consider challenges to a “centrist Jewish life”—both from the right wing’s supra-halachic modesty stringencies and the left’s so-called “reverse-engineered pesak halakha.” They argue that the modern rabbinic family and, in their terms,  a vibrant “community of  halachic normality” have the potential to provide a new form of mimesis with which to energize Jewish life.

The post Toward a Community of Normalcy appeared first on Tradition Online.

The TRADITION podcast continues to explore topics from our symposium on the 25th anniversary of Prof. Haym Soloveitchik’s “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” Soloveitchik’s essay was a rare case of a work of scholarship having a breakthrough to the popular life and imagination of a religious community. But, like most classics, “Rupture and Reconstruction” is known mostly for a boiled-down version of its famous central thesis, and for a few choice terms or concepts such as “mimesis” and “text culture.” It may not even have been read by many who nevertheless have been informed by it, use its ideas to interpret communal phenomenon, or to advance an argument or agenda.

The post A “Rupture and Reconstruction” Primer appeared first on Tradition Online.

The TRADITION podcast continues to explore topics from our symposium on the 25th anniversary of Prof. Haym Soloveitchik’s “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” In this episode two contributors to the symposium sit down to discuss each other’s essay. Rabbi Daniel Korobkin is the rabbi of the BAYT, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, and is the President of the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Chaim Strauchler leads Shaarei Shomayim, in Toronto, is also an RCA officer, and recently joined TRADITION as an associate editor.

The post Social Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Mimesis appeared first on Tradition Online.

In this new episode of the TRADITION podcast, editor Jeffrey Saks chats with Atara Eis and Laurie Novick about their essay “Reconstruction in No Man’s Land.” Eis and Novick are both certified Yoetzot Halacha, and wrote as part of our upcoming symposium marking the 25th anniversary of Prof. Haym Soloveitchik’s landmark essay “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy,” considering its enduring relevance for women’s way of Torah study and halakhic observance. Look for the symposium in our upcoming Fall 2019 issue; reread “Rupture and Reconstruction” at 

The post Reconstruction in No Man’s Land appeared first on Tradition Online.

In this inaugural episode of the TRADITION podcast, editor Jeffrey Saks sits down with renowned posek Rav J. David Bleich to discuss his multi-decade work authoring the journal’s “Survey of Recent Halakhic Literature” column. Rav Bleich is a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and professor of law at YU’s Cardozo Law School.

The post R. J. David Bleich on the 50-Year Survey of Contemporary Halakha appeared first on Tradition Online.