Jewish Thought and History

Baruch Sterman describes how an encounter with a missionary led him to a greater understanding of Ramban's commentary on this week's Parshah.

AJ Berkovitz explores the "life" of Jewish books, from authors to owners to outside the margins.

Elinatan Kupferberg argues that the boundaries between Torah and Madda have blurred and evolved throughout Jewish intellectual history. This erudite analysis upends our assumptions about Torah u-Madda and breathtakingly reimagines its past, present, and future.

Leah Sarna contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

This article was written and accepted for publication in the summer of 5783/2023 and scheduled to appear after the holidays. Because of the outbreak of Israel’s “Iron Swords” war with Ḥamas following the murderous attack on Israel on Shabbat/Simḥat Torah (7 October, 2023), we agreed that publication needed to be postponed. Now, five months into the war with no end in sight, we are nevertheless witness to renewed political tensions, public demonstrations, disagreements and paralysis in appointing judges and the President of the Supreme Court, together with resumption of talk of the “judicial reform.” Despite the continuing tragedy of the war in the south and warfare in the north, a review of how our sources treat the separation of powers and majority rule may help us avoid repeating some of the mistakes of the pre-war political and ideological divisions in Israel and contribute to a more reasoned consideration of the issues.

William Kolbrener calls for an end to Rav-polemicizing so that all interested parties might finally take his legacy and teachings at full-depth.

Ariel Krakowski explores the connection between Maimonides and the Stoics.

Tzvi Sinensky explores the Talmudic version of the Roman myth of Narcissus

AJ Berkovitz traces the reception history of a Midrash Tehillim that seems to equate the reading of Psalms with Torah study, offering a fascinating case study of how tradition evolves.

In commemoration of Rav Amital's seventh Yahrtzeit, Shlomo Zuckier shares Rav Amital's teachings on Jewish continuity, in Derasha form.