Holidays

R.A. Alpert argues that the differences between Hamas and the Zealots outweigh the similarities.

Yehoshua Pfeffer on self-abnegating vs. life-affirming teshuva.

Tzvi Sinensky on how Sefer Haggai unlocks the meaning of Hodesh Elul.

Abe Mezrich presents a poem on the Book of Ruth.

Judah Kerbel explores how differing approaches to listening to music during Sefirat ha-Omer balance the appropriate role for subjectivity in halakhic decision-making.

Beth Kissileff on the book of Jonah and its relevance on Sukkot.

Ezra Sivan follows up last year's piece about how the Exodus leveled social boundaries with an article about what the Pesah story teaches us about social distancing today.

Can we imagine a world in which the Exodus never occurred? David Curwin suggests that this - as well as a broader dispute about the relationship between Torah and history - is subject to a dispute between The Rav, R. Joseph Dov he-Levi, and his namesake, the Beit ha-Levi.

The biblical account of the holiday we refer to as Shavuot bears no relationship at all to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The emergence of the association between this harvest festival and the Sinai covenant has therefore occupied both traditional and academic thinkers for centuries. Tzvika Aviv argues for a previously unexplored approach to the question, one which bridges the mystical insights of the Zohar with current scientific knowledge regarding wheat genetics.

As we commemorate Yom HaShoah, Shay Pilnik urges us to add a Modern Orthodox voice to a discourse increasingly dominated by secular perspectives.