Jewish Thought and History

Yosef Lindell recounts the controversy surrounding different attempts at translating the Tishrei prayers.

Levi Morrow explores how the Rabbis use creative exegesis to save the world from drowning in a flood

Lawrence Kaplan makes a case for Mendelssohn's vision for our time.

What do Paul, Purim costumes, and Purim torah all have in common? Yehuda Fogel delves into the meaning of hiddenness and its role in revelation on Purim.

Aton Holzer offers an existential perspective on the transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkot and applies some Heideggerian concepts to the festival of gathering.

David Fried forwards the surprising thesis that Maimonides was a medieval mystic.

Historian Malka Simkovich explores ancient diasporic responses to collective trauma and what they can tell us about our responses to the aftermath of October 7th.

Dr. Tovah Lichtenstein responds to the details of the previously published Rav timeline.

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

The biblical account of the holiday we refer to as Shavuot bears no relationship at all to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The emergence of the association between this harvest festival and the Sinai covenant has therefore occupied both traditional and academic thinkers for centuries. Tzvika Aviv argues for a previously unexplored approach to the question, one which bridges the mystical insights of the Zohar with current scientific knowledge regarding wheat genetics.