Personal Reflections

Chaim Davis shares reflections based on his family’s (and his) close relationship with Rabbi Steinsaltz.

Eliyahu Freedman compares hospital chaplains to the Kohanim.

Jonah Rocheeld reflects on his experiences of worrying he did not belong in Torah learning, and the experience that showed him he belonged.

Nathaniel Helfgot reflects on all of the things he needed to know as a rabbi that he didn’t learn in rabbinical school.

In honor of Father's Day, Yosef Bronstein shares thoughts about the Talmud's perspective on the relationship between fathers and children.

Jonah Rocheeld reflects on the state of Modern Orthodoxy and the ways Modern Orthodoxy has removed emotionality from religious practice in pursuit of rationality.

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.

As the annual infertility awareness Shabbat approaches, Shoshanah Haberman reflects on the biblical stories of our infertile foremothers, connecting them to her own experiences and to the lives of women today.

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

David Berger's eulogy for Revel's late Prof. Arthur Hyman, a leading scholar of Medieval Jewish philosophy.