Commentary

Matt Williams wants to know what exactly a "non-observant Orthodox Jew" is before deciding whether or not it's vanishing.

Chesky Kopel looks at the various tellings and retellings of the controversial deal that Rudolph Kastner made with Nazi leadership in Budapest and argues that they represent a modern-day Midrashic presentation of the history.

Shmuel Lamm examines Rabbi Norman Lamm's sermons for insights on a crucial issue.

Thanks in part to several new publications, portions of the Orthodox world have been engaging with modern biblical scholarship in a more significant way than ever before. Gil Perl provides a four-step framework for how Jewish days schools might profitably teach many aspects of biblical criticism that do not conflict with our mesorah.

Concluding our series on the recent Siyum ha-Shas, Channa Lockshin Bob wonders: What do we want the next Women's Siyum ha-Shas to look like?

David Polsky meticulously explores officer immunity in Halakha and compares it with the American legal standard of qualified immunity.

Shlomo Zuckier explores competing theological trends underlying rabbinic guidance at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.

With the aid of some new primary sources, David Curwin offers a fresh view of the Rav's embrace of Rambam and his most important writings.

Tzvi Sinensky reimagines the utilitarian case for Torah u-Madda. Far from seeing the study of Madda as a concession to the need to earn a livelihood, the new utilitarianism uses cutting-edge scholarship to solve some of the most pressing problems in our schools and communities.

Why do Orthodox Jews vote the way they do? Zev Eleff builds a case, using some unconventional data.