Climate Change and Prayers for Rain and Dew
By examining the prayers for rain and dew through the lens of meteorology and Rabbi Soloveitchik’s Lonely Man of Faith, Chaim Trachtman presents a unique religious model for thinking about climate change.
Living in an Old Book with Poet Haim Gouri (1923-2018)
Wendy Zierler interprets a 2015 poem by the late Haim Gouri, reflecting on the challenges of aging, and on the complex and often mournful relationship between the Jewish people, their history, and their literature.
Leadership Through Retreat: A New Perspective on the Book of Esther
The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.
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.
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.