Torah Personalities

In a continuing series on great, modern Israeli thinkers, Joe Wolfson explores the powerful themes in a novel by Rav Haim Sabato.

YU President Ari Berman's opening address, comparing YU to a Sukkah! Shlomo Zuckier captures this historic moment in his notes.

Yiscah Smith explores the conceptions of teshuvah presented in the writings of the Piaseczner Rebbe and the Ba’al Ha-Tanya, identifying in them a novel approach to personal growth that speaks to contemporary Jews.

David Fried reviews The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries, the companion volume to the Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibit on Maimonides.

Rami Reiner breaks new ground, analyzing Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein's view of academic Jewish studies.

If Kant or Hegel had read Rambam or the Shulhan Arukh, they might have known that Jewish law does not actually proscribe the creation of images. But that was not the way of history. It is important to reclaim visual culture and aesthetics for religious Judaism so that beauty can be allowed to inspire halakhically bound actions, to color worship, and give meaning to our rituals.

Shlomo Riskin remembers how Yeshiva University's late Professor Louis Feldman helped him make the greatest decision of his life.

The Ne’ilah prayer, which we recite only once a year, clearly represents a moment of great religious drama, but its precise nature and purpose are somewhat mysterious. Alan Jotkowitz presents four different models for understanding Ne’ilah, drawing upon the teachings of Rav Yehuda Amital, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, and Rav Ya’akov Medan.

Alan Jotkowitz reflects on Rabbi Moshe Tendler’s unique contributions to Jewish medical ethics.

Shmuel Greene describes the lessons he learned from his Rebbe, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz ztz"l