“Miracles Do Not Happen at Every Hour”: Purim Drinking as anti-Christian Polemic

Eliav Grossman examines the Talmud's account of drinking on Purim, reading it as directed at Christian texts and traditions.

Before Whom They Stood

Menachem Butler responds to Michael Bernstein's article about the propriety of placing flags in shul sanctuaries.

The Problem of Mosaic Authorship You Never Heard of: What is Parashat Bilam?

The Talmud speaks of a mysterious passage on Bilam authored by Moses. What is it?

The Dark Side of Torah u-Madda: Chaim Potok and Core-to-Core Cultural Confrontation

The debate about Torah u-Madda and pop culture continues. Noah Marlowe argues that Chaim Potok's literature offers a useful conceptual framework for, and embodiment of, a profound confrontation between Judaism and elite elements of general culture.

To Be a Stiff-Necked People

Is Jewish stubbornness a stereotype or a source of pride? In the Torah, it appears as a criticism, but also as a veiled praise for the people of Israel’s unique power of commitment. Zach Truboff highlights this strength in an application of the words of the Piaseczner Rebbe to our current moment of crisis.

Traditional Revolutionaries

Ilan Fuchs reviews Naomi Seidman’s book Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement.

Modeling Modernity: Revisiting the Rabbi Soloveitchik Paradigm

Chaim Trachtman contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Bedecked in Splendor

In this essay, Weinberg reflects on the symbolic significance of tefillin and its message for our Jewish future.
Rav Shagar

On Subjectivity and Pluralism: Sparks of Rav Shagar’s Thought

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

The Development of Neo-Hasidism: Echoes and Repercussions Part III: Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Ariel Evan Mayse considers the neo-Hasidic approaches of Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.