Commentary

Zev Eleff offers a rejoinder and some reflections on "What if Rav Aharon Had Stayed?"

Elli Fischer argues that news of the non-observant Orthodox Jews' demise has been premature.

Merri Ukraincik contemplates G-d's role in our lives.

What changed when Rabbi Sacks retired from the Chief Rabbinate and came to America? In advance of Rabbi Sacks’ sheloshim, British native Joe Wolfson, JLIC rabbi at NYU, recalls a more relaxed and accessible Rabbi Sacks in his post-Chief Rabbinate years.

Jeffrey Green assesses Daniel Boyarin's "Traveling Homeland," Jewish texts and Diaspora in modern terms.

Leslie Ginsparg Klein examines a new case of Orthodox censorship, contextualizing it within recent trends and religious culture.

Moshe Kurtz examines the Torah’s prohibition on cross-dressing as a lens to view the shifting contemporary gender norms.

Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.

With the 10th yarhtzeit of Rav Yehuda Amital, founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, upcoming this Sunday, we are honored to publish some poignant remembrances from his students. First up is Yehuda Mirsky of Brandeis University, who recalls his last conversation with Rav Amital.

In this personal reflection, Phil Lieberman addresses the unique pain that accompanies the loss of an abusive parent and considers the uneasy coherence of this pain with Jewish traditions of mourning.