Halakhah: Navigating Between Unity and Plurality
Aaron Segal reviews Staying Human by Harris Bor.
Bathtub Mikvaot and The Curious History of a Halakhic Libel
Aryeh Klapper explores the Mikvah leniencies of Rabbi David Miller and what led one of his opponents to accuse him of making an obvious grammar mistake.
Modern Technology Meets Tehum Shabbat
In honor of yesterday's Daf Yomi Siyum on Masekhet Eiruvin, Yaakov Jaffe describes how online maps and other technological tools have better enabled communities such as Boston/Cambridge to measure their tehum shabbat.
The Instagram Rebranding of Taharat ha-Mishpahah
Recent years have seen dramatic changes in the packaging of Taharat ha-Mishpahah education on Instagram, from video reels to influencers to new, diverse online communities. Lindsey Bodner offers an astute, well-researched review of this new paradigm shift in Taharat ha-Mishpahah education today.
Taking Responsibility For Halakhic Guidance: A Response to Ezra Schwartz
In this response to last week’s article by Ezra Schwartz, Nathaniel Helfgot wonders whether the new pandemic-fueled trend toward centralized halakhic decision-making overburdens the most learned rabbis and takes too much autonomy from the others.
Four Reasons to Leverage Pop Culture in the Judaic Studies Classroom
Can we learn Torah from Star Wars, superheroes, or the hit Netflix show ‘The Crown’? Olivia Friedman, a teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, says yes, arguing that bringing pop culture into the Judaic studies classroom in a meaningful way not only makes learning more fun, but models the type of integration that Modern Orthodoxy stands for.
The Pedagogical Imagination of a Subversive Conservative: Rabbi Soloveitchik’s Arrival as an Educational Visionary
Jeffrey Saks concludes The Lehrhaus series, mapping out the intellectual biography of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Making Seder Out of the Zoom Seder Controversy
Shlomo Zuckier surveys and analyzes the debate over Zoom Seders during coronavirus.
Wearing a Smartwatch on Shabbat
Ike Sultan
A. The Question
One of the new gadgets that has become popular over the last few years is the smartwatch; a popular brand at...
Decentralization and Centralization: A COVID Tale of the Modern Orthodox Community
As the Covid-19 pandemic looks like it might be subsiding, Ezra Schwartz, a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, incisively examines competing trends toward decentralization of synagogue life and centralization of halakhic decision-making that are reshaping the Modern Orthodox world.