Reviews

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.

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.

Sima Fried reviews Jonathan Boyarin’s Yeshiva Days, illuminating the challenges of examining a community as both an insider and an outsider.

It has been six years since Rav Aharon Lichtenstein passed away. In reviewing a 2018 collection of essays by Rav Lichtenstein’s students, Alan Jotkowitz reflects on what we have lost and the void that remains.

Alan Jotkowitz reviews the latest volume of Dr. Haym Soloveitchik’s collected essays, bringing us back to the world of medieval Ashkenaz.

Esther Lindell reviews “The Haggadah about Nothing,” Rabbi Sam Reinstein’s not-too-serious exploration of how the Haggadah relates to Seinfeld, the ever-popular 90s sitcom.

Steven Gotlib reviews Roberta Rosenthal Kwall’s book Remix Judaism, which has an important message about navigating Jewish practice in the modern world for non-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews alike.

Jennifer Caplan reviews Esther in America, a timely volume featuring essays by a number of Lehrhaus editors that addresses how the characters and themes of Megillat Esther have been integrated into American thought and culture over time.

In this review of a new book by Aryeh Solomon, Ilan Fuchs explores how for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, teaching and learning are a sacred calling leading toward spiritual growth.

As we begin to read Sefer Shemot, Yosef Lindell explores Koren Publishers' new series, The Tanakh of the Land of Israel, the first volume to use Rabbi Sacks’ Humash translation.