The Torah of the Kishkes
In honor of the recent release of Moshe Koppel's new Koren/Maggid book, Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures, Elli Fischer traces the decades-long trajectory of Koppel's "Torah of the Kishkes" philosophy of Judaism.
A Cosmic Puzzle Best Left Unsolved: A Review of Harold Gans’s New Book
Ben Rothke reviews Harold Gans's new book The Cosmic Puzzle: A Scientific Investigation into the Existence of God, asking the question: Is the proof of God best left to the scientific method?
Traditional Revolutionaries
Ilan Fuchs reviews Naomi Seidman’s book Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement.
Philosophy and Exegesis: Which Leads? A Review of Aaron Koller’s Unbinding Isaac
Zvi Grumet reviews Aaron Koller’s new book on the Akedah and evaluates his surprisingly novel approach to this formative biblical story.
The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: A Review of Alexander Kaye’s New Book
What motivated the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Herzog, to work tirelessly on the seemingly quixotic project of running the modern State of Israel on the basis of Halakhah? Reviewing Alexandar Kaye's new book on the subject, Rabbi Shalom Carmy explains.
Review of After Adam
Laurance Wieder's After Adam was named the Book of the Year in 2019 by First Thing's John Wilson, but has been largely overlooked in the Jewish community. The Jewish Review of Book's Michal Leibowitz seeks to remedy this in her review of Wieder's lyrical retelling of the Bible.
Orthodoxy’s Response to Biblical Criticism: A Review of Joshua Berman’s Ani Maamin
Joshua Berman, a leading Tanakh scholar, has written a compelling book that addresses head-on many of the challenges posed by biblical criticism. Michael Harris explains.
20/20 vision for hilkhot Shabbat: A Glance at Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon’s Newest Sefer
In our saturated environment, can any contemporary work on hilkhot Shabbat break new ground? Ezra Schwartz explains that Rav Rimon's newest work does precisely this.
The Autism Question and Beyond: Rereading the Joseph Saga
R. Yitzchak Blau analyzes the 2018 book, Was Yosef on the Spectrum?
Sin-a-gogue: A Must-Read for the Yamim Noraim
Jennie Rosenfeld reviews David Bashevkin's "Sin-a-gogue: Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought."