Personal Reflections

In a moving reflection, Mali Moskowitz explores her life as a rebbetzin, lawyer, and wife, and asks: can there be a rebbetzin without a rabbi?

Leslie Ginsparg Klein's reflections on Shimon Peres, Zionism, and the importance of nuance.

Zach Truboff draws on personal experience in considering the place of Yizkor on Yom Tov.

With the 10th yarhtzeit of Rav Yehuda Amital, founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, upcoming this Sunday, we are honored to publish some poignant remembrances from his students. First up is Yehuda Mirsky of Brandeis University, who recalls his last conversation with Rav Amital.

As the tumultuous events of 2020 continue into the heady days of summer, the Lehrhaus is looking back, with short reflections on the moments we have been thinking about. Our first reflection is from new Lehrhaus editor Yosef Lindell, thinking about his lonely return to communal prayer.

Can we learn Torah from Star Wars, superheroes, or the hit Netflix show ‘The Crown’? Olivia Friedman, a teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, says yes, arguing that bringing pop culture into the Judaic studies classroom in a meaningful way not only makes learning more fun, but models the type of integration that Modern Orthodoxy stands for.

Noah Marlowe offers a personal reflection on the experience of simultaneously studying Hilkhot Aveilut and coping with loss from a clinical social work perspective. He explores the similarities and differences between the two lenses and how they could each benefit from being in conversation with each other.

The Yom Kippur War was a defining moment in the life of poet Leonard Cohen, a moment when his entire spiritual destiny hung in the balance. Bezalel Naor on Cohen's priestly imagination.

Benjamin Marcus was commissioned to create illustrations for an illuminated manuscript of the Book of Ruth. In this one-of-a-kind article, he shares his challenges, his discoveries, and his art.

Malka Simkovich with a careful reading of the work of the late Leonard Cohen.