The Agunah

The Written Law

Across the River

In this riveting short story, Leah Cypess retells a medieval Shavuot legend of how a Jewish community was saved from a deadly sorcerer.

Moshe the Marvellous

Take a fantastical jump into Matan Torah in this short story by David Zvi Kalman.

Rabbi Yohanan Reads the Book of Job

In his latest for the Lehrhaus, Dan Ornstein creatively imagines the story of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yohanan through his teachings on the Book of Job. The short story is followed by a reflection on the methodology and power of "contemporary midrash."

The Mashiach Card

Would you be happy for the Messiah to arrive? In this short story, R.A. Alpert imagines the conflicts that arise when a Jewish businessman attempts to capitalize on the coming of the Messiah

Saturday Afternoon

Yeshiva University's 1954 Jerome Robbins winning short story by Leo Taubes, with an Introduction by Judy Taubes Sterman.

Kiddush Levanah on the Moon

What would Jewish life in outer space look like? In this short story, Joseph Helmreich imagines the Jewish community transplanted into a new life among the stars

That Which Is Beyond Your Gates

In this imaginative short story from David Zvi Kalman, as synagogue attendance shrinks, the buildings themselves begin to grow.

The Agagites

For Parshat Zakhor, this short story by Shira Eliaser richly imagines the world of King Saul and the clandestine encounter that brought Haman’s Amalekite ancestors into the world.

The Shepherd’s Veil

This short story by Benjamin Guggenheim reimagines Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf: powerful yet powerless, dutiful yet embittered, so close to God yet so distant from His people.

Two Men Enter the Vacated Space ...

The death of Nadav and Avihu is difficult to explain, perhaps even impossible to approach through the medium of language. In a composition crossing the boundaries of original drashah, Breslov thought, poetry, visual art, and historical fiction, Akiva Weisinger renders the tragedy of Nadav and Avihu as a reflection of the Vacated Space beyond human language.