Culture

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

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, published here are excerpts from letters of an American student studying in Israel in 1973. These letters, written during and immediately after the war, shed light on Yeshivat Har Etzion in its formative years and the lasting impact of the Yom Kippur War.

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

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.

Todd Berman warns of antisemitism in strange places.

Sarah Rindner contemplates whether Torah u-Madda as it’s sometimes interpreted can engender unreflective allegiance to trends in contemporary society that might harm our religious communities.

Yaakov Jaffe analyzes the multiple meanings of a medieval Jewish poem and popular Shabbat table song.

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

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

What is it like to make aliyah from New Jersey precisely at a time when North American Jewry is suffering more heavily than Israel? Ahead of Yom Yerushalayim, Sarah Rindner, drawing on Yehuda ha-Levi and Yehudah Amichai, reflects.