Torah and Technology

Ari Elias-Bachrach explores the science behind lab-produced meat and cheese and the possibility of a realistic kosher cheeseburger.

Sarah Rudolph responds to Zev Eleff's article on "Digital Democratization".

Jeffrey Saks concludes The Lehrhaus series, mapping out the intellectual biography of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

How will digital technology transform Torah study in the coming years? Two of the brilliant minds working at the cutting edge of this field, Moshe Koppel and Avi Shmidman, both professors at Bar-Ilan University, offer a window into the Torah tools of the future.

Howard Apfel reviews Sacred Training: A Halakhic Guidebook for Medical Students and Residents.

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.

Yaakov Jaffe explores a common synagogue practice, and why it doesn't seem so halakhic. minyan,

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.

Jonathan Ziring explores the innovative nature of different Halakhic rulings permitting violating Shabbat to save non-Jewish lives.

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.