A Prayer for This Passover
How can we respond to a Seder during which it is prohibited to host guests? Yitzchak Etshalom and David Block each offer unique tefillot to be recited at our Seder table this year.
An Essential Jewish Text on the Armenian Genocide
Chesky Kopel analyzes an early Zionist text to give insight into Jewish reactions to the Armenian genocide.
Aesopian Language in the Holocaust Writings of the Aish Kodesh of Piaseczno
The Hasidic work, Aish Kodesh, under the scholarly microscope, by Henry Abramson.
From Graduation to Contagion: Jewish Physicians Confront Plague in 1631
Contemporary physicians have been heroic in the battle against COVID-19, but what was it like to be one of a handful of Jewish doctors confronting the Bubonic Plague during the 17th-century in Italy? Prolific medical halakhist and historian Eddie Reichman takes a close look at the four Jewish graduates of the Padua medical school class of 1623.
Searching for the Vatican’s Menorah
Tzvi Sinensky on the lost Menorah, the Vatican theory, and the ideology of the search and mythology.
Man is not God: The Limits of Imitatio Dei
David Fried clarifies the concept of imitating God through Rashi's oft-neglected reading of “It is not good for man to be alone”
Malbim’s Paean to (Ben Azzai’s) Kantian Ethics
Francis Nataf explores Malbim’s sophisticated engagement with Kantian ethics.
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.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Theory of Education
In this review of a new book by Aryeh Solomon, Ilan Fuchs explores how for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, teaching and learning are a sacred calling leading toward spiritual growth.
A Chicken, a Golem, and the Scientific Revolution
How did early modern rabbis respond to the Scientific Revolution? Eli Clark reviews Maoz Kahana's new book A Heartless Chicken.