A “What If” Review: Hypothetical History, Science, and Halakhah

Yaakov Taubes examines three hypothetical “What if?” books and what they can teach us about history, science, and halakhah.

The Staggering Brilliance of Rambam’s Fourth Chapter of The Laws of Repentance 

Alan Jotkowitz shares insights into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuvah

Judaism is About Two Kinds of Love

  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...

Reclaiming the Musical Past: Leon Modena and Salamone Rossi in Context

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.

My Teacher, Professor Yaakov Blidstein ztz”l

After Professor Yaakov Blidstein's passing on Thursday, Marc Herman recalls his teacher's astonishing blend of scholarly creativity and intellectual humility.

An Ishbitz-Radzyn Reading of the Joseph Narrative: The Light of Reason and the Flaw...

Batya Hefter traces Joseph's character development through the eyes of the Ishbitz-Radzyn masters.

Rashashian Kavanot as Concrete Poetry

In advance of the kabbalist R. Shalom Sharabi's 244th yahrtzeit, which falls out this Shabbat, Jeremy Tibbetts offers a primer on Rashash's kabbalistic kavanot and the underappreciated art of concrete poetry.

A Call for Order: Maimonides and the Mishnah

Yaakov Taubes explores the background to Maimonides’s explanation for how the Mishnah is ordered.

Rav Yehuda Amital and the Secret of Jewish Continuity

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

This 9th of Av: Do We Sing with Yehudah Ha-Levi, or on Account of...

Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe comments on the poetry, context, and tension of Yehuda Ha-Levi's "Tziyon Halo Tishali" Kinnah.