Jewish Thought and History

Alan Kadish offers a vision for how Orthodox Jews should think about "chosenness."

  Zach Truboff In 1933, as the month of Elul approached, the Jewish people faced a frightening array of dangers. That year, Hitler consolidated power as...

Hasdai Crescas criticized Maimonides for counting belief as a Mitzvah, arguing that we have no control over what we believe. Dovid Campbell explores a surprisingly common defense of Maimonides that places his views closer to those of Crescas than we might have initially imagined.

Tzvi Sinensky on The Slonimer's contemporary popularity

Francis Nataf considers the legacy of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

In his first article for the Lehrhaus, Akiva Garner explores the phenomenon of vulnerability through both Jewish texts and modern psychology–and highlights its unrecognized significance in Jewish living and meaning.

Shlomo Zuckier presents Rav Aharon Lichtenstein's own thoughts on academic Talmud.

Did Rav Soloveitchik buy into Nietzsche’s critique of religion? Alex Ozar reviews Daniel Rynhold and Michael Harris’s book, which surprisingly argues that the answer to this question is yes.

Josh Frankel reviews Lenn Goodman’s new work of commentary on Moreh Nevukhim, which brings Rambam’s work to life for careful, contemporary readers.

In his newest review, former Lehrhaus webmaster Steve Gotlib looks at Hasidim, Suffering and Renewal: The Prewar and Holocaust Legacy of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira and examines scholars’ differing views on whether the Aish Kodesh experienced a crisis of faith due to the Holocaust.