Shammai Vs. Hillel: The Angel Is In The Details

Chaim Trachtman shows how a careful examination of debates between Shammai and Hillel challenge our preconceived notions about them.

Homes Without Hate and Praying With Sinners

Jerome Marcus comments on the connection between davening with sinners and playing politics.

There Are No Lights in War: We Need a Different Religious Language

A growing list of dati le’umi leaders and thinkers frame war as a desirable state and even an opportunity for spiritual elevation. Religious Israeli activist Ariel Shwartz traces this trend with alarm and argues that it contradicts deep-rooted Torah values. Translated by Mordechai Blau.

Rudolph Kastner and How History Becomes Midrash

Chesky Kopel looks at the various tellings and retellings of the controversial deal that Rudolph Kastner made with Nazi leadership in Budapest and argues that they represent a modern-day Midrashic presentation of the history.

Modern Orthodoxy is a Swing State

As this election season draws to a close at last, Zev Eleff crunches the numbers on the Modern Orthodox vote—a demographic whose politics are not so easy to pin down.

“Answer Us in the Merit of Our Master, Answer Us:” An Election-Day Reflection on...

Shaul Seidler-Feller Introduction Early last week, a friend forwarded me a recently-published video produced in Israel. When it began to play, I was quickly taken in...

The Yom Kippur War and Yeshivat Har Etzion: Letters from a Talmid

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, published here are excerpts from letters of an American student studying in Israel in 1973. These letters, written during and immediately after the war, shed light on Yeshivat Har Etzion in its formative years and the lasting impact of the Yom Kippur War.

On the Freedom to Pray: A Response to Professor Jonathan Sarna

Jonathan Muskat responds to Jonathan Sarna regarding a proposed change in the text of the Orthodox Jewish prayer for the government.

Jung Earth Creationism: Two New York Rabbis Respond to the Scopes Trial

No two Orthodox rabbis think exactly the same way, particularly on the matter of Darwinism in the wake of the Scopes Trial. 

Tablets Shattered (And Restored?): Jewish Identity Here and Now

Joshua Leifer’s new book illustrates the collapse of several paradigms that long sustained American Jewish life. In his review, Steven Gotlib notes that Leifer’s search for a viable, non-separatist, traditional Judaism overlooks several existing models of Jewish life and practice.