Culture

Marc Michael Epstein explores the nature of animal motifs in medieval Jewish manuscripts.

After Professor Yaakov Blidstein's passing on Thursday, Marc Herman recalls his teacher's astonishing blend of scholarly creativity and intellectual humility.

Bezalel Naor translates and contextualizes a poem by Pinchas Peli about the home of Rav Kook.

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?

Eileen Watts puts the writings of Bernard Malamud in conversation with today's immigrant debate.

The question of whether or not your writing is Jewish is not up to you, because writing ultimately belongs to the reader. Krauss’ avatar answers Ozick perfectly: “Jewish literature would have to wait, as all Jewish things wait for a perfection that in our hearts we don’t really want to come.” In the end, perhaps all we can do is kvetch and vacillate between different answers to the question of what is Jewish literature—because, of course, the answer was never the point.

Yitzchak Blau reviews Jeffrey Rubenstein’s The Land of Truth, Talmud Tales, Timeless Teachings.

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.

In a continuing series on great, modern Israeli thinkers, Joe Wolfson explores the powerful themes in a novel by Rav Haim Sabato.

Jewishness, antisemitism, popular culture and Russian television in the postwar era? Historian Maya Balakirsky Katz explains.