Culture

In his latest for the Lehrhaus, Dan Ornstein creatively imagines the story of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yohanan through his teachings on the Book of Job. The short story is followed by a reflection on the methodology and power of "contemporary midrash."

As the annual infertility awareness Shabbat approaches, Shoshanah Haberman reflects on the biblical stories of our infertile foremothers, connecting them to her own experiences and to the lives of women today.

A poem addressed to survivors in the Chareidi community about the existential confusion endured by child sexual abuse.

Rebecca Cypess considers the life and work of the Italian Jewish Renaissance composer Salamone Rossi, his rabbinic supporter Leon Modena, and the controversies over 17th century polyphonic music in the synagogue.

This short story by Benjamin Guggenheim reimagines Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf: powerful yet powerless, dutiful yet embittered, so close to God yet so distant from His people.

In a moving personal essay, Joshua Stadlan explores a famous Purim midrash with the commentary of Rav Soloveitchik to reflect on his life, religious journey, and relationship with God.

For Parshat Zakhor, this short story by Shira Eliaser richly imagines the world of King Saul and the clandestine encounter that brought Haman’s Amalekite ancestors into the world.

Yehoshua November's poem movingly and thoughtfully portrays the challenges and pleasures of Chassidic life.

Marina Zilbergerts presents the philosophical questions posed by Chaim Grade's “My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner,” and compares his arguments to those of other major thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche.

In this whimsical story, David Zvi Kalman takes an information theory perspective in tackling what it might have been like for Moses to receive the Law.