The Legacy of Rav Moshe Kahn zt’’l

In commemoration of the upcoming Sheloshim of Rav Moshe Kahn, Mindy Schwartz Zolty shares a Hesped of her teacher in which she discusses his derekh ha-limmud and his derekh as a melamed.

Yatziv Pitgam: Poetry as Talmud Commentary

How should we understand Yatziv Pitgam, the enigmatic poem recited in the Haftarah for the second day of Shavuot? Tzvi Novick’s close reading reveals it to be a paean to the Torah and those who study it.
Rak Shnenu

Unhappy Families: Elhanan Nir’s Rak Shnenu

The Agnon scholar, Jeffrey Saks, sees some Agnonian work in modern Israeli literature.

The Market For Halakhic Authority: Some Reflections on Gadolnomics

Aryeh Klapper It is my great pleasure to respond to Prof. Chaim Saiman’s characteristically erudite, well-reasoned, and provocative essay about Liberal Orthodoxy and “gedolim.” I agree entirely...

Shared Leadership: A Response to Ezra Schwartz and Nathaniel Helfgot

In response to recent articles by Ezra Schwartz and Nathaniel Helfgot on the issue of centralization, Jeffrey Fox offers a vision of collaborative, personalized pesak in the post-Covid era.

Shas’ Rav Ovadia: Omnipresent “Abba” Looks Down From Above

Meshulam Gotlieb responds to Shaul Seidler-Feller with his own interpretation of Shas' 2019 political campaign.

Gleaning the Wisdom of Ruth

In advance of Shavuot, Stuart Halpern reviews Reading Ruth, a succinct but poignant new literary commentary on the Book of Ruth, by Leon Kass and his granddaughter Hannah Mandelbaum.

Yeshivish Women Clergy: The Secular State and Changing Roles for Women in Ultra-Orthodoxy

Laura Shaw Frank contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

My Teacher, Professor Yaakov Blidstein ztz”l

After Professor Yaakov Blidstein's passing on Thursday, Marc Herman recalls his teacher's astonishing blend of scholarly creativity and intellectual humility.

When Kaddish Becomes Currency: Mapping Out the Mechanics of Merit

Moshe Kurtz explores several halakhic questions concerning the recitation of kaddish for the deceased, all of which point to a larger discussion about how one can confer merit on someone else.