American Orthodoxy

Today's letters to the editor rethink the utility of Torah u-Madda in today's world. Noam Stadlan reminds us that all knowledge is God's creation and thus inherently valuable, while Larry Grossman (author of “The Rise and Fall of Torah U’Madda“) argues that Torah u-Madda fails to address the various issues that now confront Modern Orthodoxy.

Devora Steinmetz Thank you to Rabbi Saul Berman for his essay about the deliberations and planning that led to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s opening shiur at Stern...

Shayna Goldberg contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Yaakov Jaffe argues that kids would be better served by coming to shul for the beginning of the Shabbat davening rather than the end.

Peter Berger, Daniel Korobkin argues, offers an important lens to understand Orthodox Judaism, its religious features and institutions.

Jerome Marcus explores understandings of freedom within halakhah and how they relate to Pesah and Shavuot

Yaakov Bieler details several reasons why Torah u-Madda remains important to our role as Torah Jews and some practical ways we can implement this approach.

Lawrence Kaplan I read Chaim Saiman’s essay, “The Market for Gedolim: A Tale of Supply and Demand,” with growing excitement and admiration. Saiman’s shift of...

As Juneteenth sparks another round of discussion of blacks and the American experience, Chaim Trachtman compares and contrasts the Jewish and Black experiences in America through the lens of Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book.

Ethan Tucker I am grateful to the editors of Lehrhaus for inviting me into this discussion and to my friend and colleague, Chaim Saiman, for...