Personal Reflections

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.

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.

Nechama Sternberg contemplates her relationship to her grandfather, and remarks on the person he was in life.

In this thoughtful essay, Cypess reflects on the melody that is carrying Israel in the wake of October 7th.

Merri Ukraincik contemplates G-d's role in our lives.

Moshe Kurtz provides a poignant and vivid tribute to Rav Moshe Tendler, reflecting on their time learning together during the final three years of his life.

In a moving personal essay, Joshua Stadlan explores a famous Purim midrash with the commentary of Rav Soloveitchik to reflect on his life, religious journey, and relationship with God.

In this essay, Thomas P. Balázs considers Edgar Allan Poe as a springboard to consider what makes a life meaningful

Aton Holzer reflects on Jerusalem and Zionism.

Natalie Zemon Davis, a Jewish historian known for shining a light on the lives of marginalized people in the early modern period, passed away in October. Ronnie Perelis commemorates Dr. Zemon Davis by reflecting on the experience of teaching her revolutionary work to his students at Stern College for Women.