Commentary

In this essay, Aviva Lauer analyzes the Biblical prohibition against cutting down fruit trees in wartime, and connects it to messages about human dignity.

Joshua Ladon reviews the Devash Jr. Book of Shemot.

Yosef Blau and Jonah Winer respond to Ari Zivitofsky's recent article regarding the alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teiman.

The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.

In the summer of 2024, IDF police raided the Sde Teiman base as part of an investigation into reports of serious abuse of alleged terrorist detainees. The many turns of the resulting controversy divided Israeli society during wartime and brought global attention to Israel's military prisons. Ari Zivitofsky reflects on these events and argues that senior officials in the Israeli government and media failed to heed the dictates of the Jewish ethical tradition.

In honor of the yahrtzeits of Rabbis Jonathan Sacks and Abraham Joshua Heschel, we present Steven Gotlib's study of Rabbi Sacks's complicated engagement with the scholarship and religious worldview of Rabbi Heschel.

Yosef Lindell reviews Rabbi Sacks's Humash translation and commentary, and compares it with other translations used in the scope of Modern Orthodoxy.

In this essay, Steve Lipman analyzes reasons Orthodox Jewish people leave Orthodoxy, and how the Orthodox community should (and should not) respond.

Dena Rock reviews the new book of responsa on women's issues by Rav Yehuda Henkin (z"l).

Following the World Zionist Congress, Gabriel Slamovits reflects on the significance of the event and how the journey of Avraham and Sarah in Parshat Lech Lecha informs the future.