Coronavirus

Erica Brown considers the little-discussed prohibition on planting during the Nine Days and what it teaches about the nature of mourning and joy.

Hillel Broder reflects on the edges in life, in his latest poem for the Lehrhaus.

Post-pandemic proposals to omit hazarat ha-shatz on a permanent basis have been soundly rejected by halakhic authorities. Is this due exclusively to halakhic considerations, or are additional factors at play? Yosie Levine contends that Ashkenazic rabbinic opposition to 19th-century attempts to eliminate hazarat ha-shatz may still be shaping halakhic discourse today.

Covid-19 has underscored the extent to which Halakhah is profoundly concerned for mental well-being. Addressing this timely issue, Sharon Galper Grossman and Shamai A. Grossman offer a comprehensive overview of relevant halakhic perspectives on mental health and Halakhah.

Ezra Sivan follows up last year's piece about how the Exodus leveled social boundaries with an article about what the Pesah story teaches us about social distancing today.

What does Shakespeare have to say about the Exodus, Moses, and the power of storytelling? Shaina Trapedo explores how the Bard's work can speak to us during this unprecedented Pesach season.

As 2021 comes to a close, the Lehrhaus team is delighted to highlight many of the thought-provoking essays we’ve published this year, with a diverse array of incredible thinkers and writers.

Rav Mosheh Lichtenstein shares his reflections on the theological implications of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Responding to Judah Kerbel's discussion of synagogue life after COVID, Yechiel Shaffer argues that the pandemic is a call not simply to enhance synagogue life, but to reimagine it in bold new ways.

Contemporary physicians have been heroic in the battle against COVID-19, but what was it like to be one of a handful of Jewish doctors confronting the Bubonic Plague during the 17th-century in Italy? Prolific medical halakhist and historian Eddie Reichman takes a close look at the four Jewish graduates of the Padua medical school class of 1623.