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.
Praying for Governments We Dislike?
Historian Jonathan Sarna places a recent decision by an Orthodox synagogue to modify the "prayer for the government" into sharp historical focus.
Aleinu and Genesis: Against the Twin Idolatries of Universalism & Ethnonationalism
Does the Torah support a universalist or ethnonationalist political orientation? In this timely essay, Ezra Zuckerman Sivan explores the meaning behind key stories in Genesis through the framework of the Aleinu prayer.
‘May Memories Rise’- On the Meaning of ‘Ya’aleh ve-Yavo’
Ben Lorber reflects on the meaning of ya'aleh ve-yavo.
Beginning the day with Halakhah or with Spirituality?
Yaakov Jaffe examines how the order of our morning Tefillot can shape the way we approach our day.
Cantillation: Some Observations – Part 1
William Gewirtz explores the value of cantillation.
Wake Up Sleeping One! Yehudah Ha-Levi’s Dramatic Use of Genre and Narrative Voice in...
Yaakov Jaffe examines Yehudah Ha-Levi's High Holiday poem "Yashen, Al Teradam"
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.
Wise Trader or Deceitful Traitor? Eshet Hayil Reconsidered
Eliav Grossman contextualizes the femininity emerging from some of Proverbs' best known passages
Shnei Zeitim: A Hanukkah Piyyut About the Separation of Powers
Yitzhak Szyf explores the piyyut of Shnei Zeitim, a once well-known addition to the Shabbat Hanukkah services that subtly critiques the Hasmoneans for usurping the kingship while serving as priests.
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