Torah Personalities

Forty years ago, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik changed women's Torah education forever. Rabbi Saul Berman tells us how that happened.

With the emerging Kneset leadership bringing together a broad range of political parties, consider Zach Truboff's review of Rav Shagar's writings (in honor of his upcoming yahrtzeit), which argue that Religious Zionist thought must transcend the old binary of Left and Right.

Levi Morrow provides an all-new translation of Rav Elhanan Nir’s “Kavvanot for Rosh Hashanah,” and analyzes how these theological poems speak about our relationship with God and prayer on Rosh Hashanah.

The Mei Ha-Shiloah’s statements on predetermination pose a theological challenge to foundational Jewish doctrines. In an analysis weaving together several Torah narratives and Izhbitzer commentaries, Reuven Boshnack proposes an empowering interpretation of the Mei Ha-Shiloah.

Tzvi Sinensky makes a case to consider Rabbi Norman Lamm as pathbreaking Talmud innovator.

  Yael Unterman   I dedicate this essay to my friend Dr. Tsippi Kauffman z”l, who passed away in the course of its writing. A wonderful educator,...

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.

Meira Wolkenfeld's reflection commemorating the passing of Yaakov Elman, ob"m.

William Kolbrener offers insight into the intellectual underpinnings of the Rav's 1932 interview recently re-published by The Lehrhaus.

R. Meir Simcha Cohen of Dvinsk, the legendary author of Meshekh Hokhmah and Ohr Sameiah and early-20th century community leader, passed away exactly one century ago. In honor of this centennial, Chaim Oscar Jacob reappraises the legacy of R. Meir Simcha.