Lifnei Hashem Tit’haru — The Hinge of Leviticus and the Heart of Yom Kippur

Chaim Saiman explores the grammatical structures of Yom Kippur mussaf, particularly in comparison to Torah reading.

Can a Court Really Ban Kapparot and Why it Matters for the American Jewish...

Michael (Avi) Helfand on a recent court case with implications for American Jews as members of both a religious and a minority community.

Running and Returning: A Personal Reflection on Prayer, Contemporary Poetry, and Yom Kippur’s Neilah...

In this essay, Yehoshua November presents a model for preparing for the High Holidays

Return… Again? Theories of Twice-Baked Teshuvah

Lehrhaus founder Shlomo Zuckier examines the debate about whether we can repeat Teshuvah for the same sin.

These Days

A new poem by Hannah Butcher-Stell, for the Days of Awe.

Anonymous Leadership:  The Emotional Drama in Ishay Ribo’s Seder ha-Avodah

Shira Hecht-Koller and Aaron Koller explore the worship of the Kohen Gadol through the voice of Ishay Ribo.

Teshuvah, From the (Dis)comfort of Your Own Home

After six months suspended between quarantine, isolation, and uncertainty, it’s natural to want to run away from home, especially as Yom Kippur looms and we realize it’s time for a change. But, as Matthew Nitzanim explains, this understandable reaction would miss the point of Teshuvah: everything we need to work on is right here, wherever it is we find ourselves.