Finding Tradition in the Modern Torah World

Finding Tradition in the Modern Torah WorldBetween the 17th and 18th Centuries, there was an explosion of innovation in Jewish practice that followed the introduction and popularization of the Tzfas schools of kabbala. I might be wrong, but I can't help thinking that a Jew from the year 1650, miraculously transported to a thriving Torah community in 2023, would wonder whether he was still among Jews. Everything would look, sound, and feel so different. That's all fine. But what I would like to

Between the 17th and 18th Centuries, there was an explosion of innovation in Jewish practice that followed the introduction and popularization of the Tzfas schools of kabbala. I might be wrong, but I can't help thinking that a Jew from the year 1650, miraculously transported to a thriving Torah community in 2023, would wonder whether he was still among Jews. Everything would look, sound, and feel so different.

That's all fine. But what I would like to see is a world where it's also normal and acceptable for a Jew to choose to live according to the traditional principles of pre-Tzfas Judaism. There should be room in such a world for other - newer - traditions. But loyalty to the innovations of Tzfas should never be a test for loyalty to God's Torah. I'm looking for a way to agreeably acknowledge my neighbors' strange innovations while passionately embracing the traditional approach of Rabbi Hirsch.