Jewish Thought and History

Ayelet Wenger weaves together the personal, historical and exegetical in advance of reading Sefer Shemot.

David Fried offers a novel reading of the Akeidah.

Rebecca Cypess considers the life and work of the Italian Jewish Renaissance composer Salamone Rossi, his rabbinic supporter Leon Modena, and the controversies over 17th century polyphonic music in the synagogue.

Elli Fischer on Rasbhi's passing, his legacy, and some other rabbinic legacies, as well.

David Fried reviews The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries, the companion volume to the Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibit on Maimonides.

In this essay, written in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, Bezalel Naor explores the differing visions for the ideal state held by Plato and the Rabbis, Maimonides and Rabbi Nahman of Breslov.

Lehrhaus Founding and Consulting Editor Elli Fischer on why R. Mendel of Rimanov is said to have spoken about the man every Shabbat for 22 consecutive years, and why reciting parshat ha-man the Tuesday before Parshat Beshalah might not be a segulah for parnasa, but R. Mendel's exhortation to be content with our lot.

In response to Gil Perl's Postmodern Orthodoxy, Gidon Rothstein asks for another look at Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and the limits of pluralism and what we consider "truth."

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.

How successful is the new book, Reclaiming Dignity: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women, at setting forth a new Torah-based vision for modesty? Laurie Novick offers a careful review, carefully considering both the personal essays and halakhic/hashkafic analyses set forward in this important work.