Jewish Thought and History

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.

Francis Nataf explores Malbim’s sophisticated engagement with Kantian ethics.

  Warren Zev Harvey Review of Shai Held, Judaism is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). Originally...

How did early modern rabbis respond to the Scientific Revolution? Eli Clark reviews Maoz Kahana's new book A Heartless Chicken.

Herzl Hefter provides critical perspective on a stream of Akeidah interpretation from Kierkegaard to the Rav

Zev Eleff explores how the Jewish family anchored Rabbi Norman Lamm's sermons and thought during the destabilizing 1960s.

Udi Dvorkin offers a plea to take Rav Shagar at his full value, which means reading him in the original Hebrew.

Alex Ozar analyzes the writings of R. Soloveitchik and several other contemporary Jewish thinkers to argue for the existence of a Mitzvah of become a prophet.

Stuart Halpern explains how, when faced with uncertainty, danger, and personal and communal hardships, Americans have turned to the story of the Exodus for inspiration.

We will all be much more distant from each other this Rosh Hashanah. That’s why, argues Ranana Dine, it’s time to revive the tradition of sending physical greeting cards.