Culture

Shlomo Spivack discusses the anti-spirituality of his teacher, Rav Menachem Froman.

Victor M. Erlich offers insight into an infamous Shakespearean character.

In tribute to his son's hanahat tefilin and Bar Mitzvah, Lehrhaus Consulting Editor Jeffrey Saks explores a little-known, mysterious practice that appears in Agnon's short story Two Pairs.

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.

Rav Shagar's postmodern insights on accepting the yoke of Heaven, for your pre-Shavuos reading pleasure!

Six new poems by Elhanan Nir—published here with English translation and annotation—capture the grief and discontinuity of this moment.

Zach Truboff explores Rav Kook's fascinating philosophy of history, focusing on five recently translated essays.

The zogerke or firzogerin, once the vernacular translator in the women’s section of the synagogue, has faded into distant memory. Dalia Wolfson reimagines her for our times.

A growing list of dati le’umi leaders and thinkers frame war as a desirable state and even an opportunity for spiritual elevation. Religious Israeli activist Ariel Shwartz traces this trend with alarm and argues that it contradicts deep-rooted Torah values. Translated by Mordechai Blau.

Sarah Rindner reviews Shababniks and its portrait of haredi life.