Ethan Tucker

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Jul 28, 2024, 4:12 PM

Will Jews on the US political stage follow my stepfather Joe Lieberman’s path?

Then-Democratic presidential candidate, vice president Al Gore and his running mate, the late Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, wave to supporters as they take the stage at the start of a campaign rally in Jackson, Tennessee, October 25, 2000. (AP Photo/ Stephan Savoia/ File)

The former senator leveraged his own Judaism to accomplish a lifetime of service; for him, Jewish heritage was a unique spur to help change the world

Oct 26, 2023, 6:16 PM

Redeeming Captives: Then and Now

This week’s parashah, Lekh Lekha, features not one, but two examples of people close to Avraham taken hostage. Avraham reacts very differently in these two scenarios, and we have something to learn from him in both. The first is his...

Jun 30, 2022, 7:10 AM

R. Prof. David Weiss Halivni – An intellectual and religious tribute

Rabbi Professor David Weiss-Halivni, delivering a lecture under the auspices of the Union for Traditional Judaism, in Jerusalem, 2008. (screenshot, YouTube)

He was a magnetic figure, and yet humble, in his perpetual search for greater understanding, probing modern questions without abandoning the past

May 24, 2017, 9:57 AM

Yom Yerushalayim: The messiah’s donkey and its dung

With the great power of Jewish sovereignty comes a great responsibility that Israel has not yet fulfilled

Feb 9, 2017, 11:50 AM

(Mis)understanding Tradition

The recent discussions about female clergy in Orthodoxy are flooded with the rhetoric of tradition and change. Given that Judaism, writ large, as certainly had a long-standing tradition of male leadership and full, public ritual citizenship has classically largely...

Nov 11, 2016, 8:26 AM

In David’s House: Confronting Leadership and Sin

There are few things that I find more delightful than studying the dramatic stories of the Tanakh with my children. The characters are complex, the plot lines are thick and the stakes of our entire people often hang in...

Apr 21, 2015, 5:03 PM

Legacies of R. Aharon Lichtenstein: Shared Leadership, Broad Influence and Uncommon Integrity

וידם אהרן. Yesterday, R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s earthly voice fell silent. The world and the Jewish community have lost a giant of Torah, and his thousands and thousands of students have lost a teacher. I can’t quite call myself his student,...

Nov 5, 2014, 5:01 AM

Immersion, Dignity, Power, Presence and Gender

Immersion, Dignity, Power, Presence and Gender: A Tale of Female Conversion in Five Parts Recent events have raised many questions about conversion, ethics, power structures and the state of the American rabbinate. But at the heart of the storm is a...

Sep 18, 2014, 10:58 PM

Shamor and Zakhor: Competing Frames for Shabbat in the Torah and Today

In the Torah, there are two divergent formulations of the Ten Commandments—one in Exodus and another in Deuteronomy. The difference between them regarding Shabbat is particularly striking: Exodus maintains that the goal of Shabbat is “זכור”/“be mindful of”, and...

Jan 26, 2014, 6:21 PM

Gender and tefillin: Possibilities and consequences

A close exploration of sources and history to delineate the possible approaches to the issue of gender and phylacteries

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About Me

Rabbi Ethan Tucker is Rosh Yeshiva at Hadar. Rabbi Tucker was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and earned a PhD in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. from Harvard College. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and has served as a trustee of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and The Ramaz School. He is the author, along with R. Micha'el Rosenberg, of Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law.