Culture

In his latest for the Lehrhaus, Steven Gotlib reviews the recently published collection of essays, Strauss, Spinoza, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith, which tries to answer: is there a philosophical defense of Orthodoxy in the modern world?

In advance of Shavuot, Stuart Halpern reviews Reading Ruth, a succinct but poignant new literary commentary on the Book of Ruth, by Leon Kass and his granddaughter Hannah Mandelbaum.

Tehila Wenger offers a short story on loss, eternity, and olive trees .

Moshe Koppel Reviews Chaim Saiman's Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law.

Laurance Wieder's After Adam was named the Book of the Year in 2019 by First Thing's John Wilson, but has been largely overlooked in the Jewish community. The Jewish Review of Book's Michal Leibowitz seeks to remedy this in her review of Wieder's lyrical retelling of the Bible.

Shaul Seidler-Feller Introduction Early last week, a friend forwarded me a recently-published video produced in Israel. When it began to play, I was quickly taken in...

David Selis and Zvi Erenyi share their memories of JTS Librarian Professor Menahem Schmelzer for his sheloshim.

Judah Kerbel explores how differing approaches to listening to music during Sefirat ha-Omer balance the appropriate role for subjectivity in halakhic decision-making.

Gila Bieler-Hoch reviews Hilkhot Nashim, published by JOFA and Maggid Books.

In this Tu B'Av-themed short story, "Ayalah Bat-Lapidot" reckons with her status as a single woman while being the daughter of the famous Devorah in ancient Israel.