Jewish Thought and History

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

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.

Bezalel Naor offers a stirring, other-worldly rendition of Rav Kook's poem "The Conversation of the Angels"

Tzvi Goldstein's recent piece on Centrist and Haredi Orthodoxy has generated many responses from our readers. Today we present two stimulating letters by R.A. Alpert and Yaakov Resnik, who examine Goldstein's analysis from the perspectives of Hirschian Torah im Derekh Eretz and his analysis of the underpinnings of the Haredi hashkafa, respectively.

In the 1950s, Eliezer Berkovits reflects on Judaism, tradition and how generations connect with one another.

In commemoration of the upcoming Sheloshim of Rav Moshe Kahn, Mindy Schwartz Zolty shares a Hesped of her teacher in which she discusses his derekh ha-limmud and his derekh as a melamed.

Lawrence Kaplan responds to AJ Berkovitz’s article on the many conflicting interpretations of a passage in Midrash Tehillim, highlighting two different approaches advanced by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

What do you get when you read George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda alongside Rav Soloveitchik’s Kol Dodi Dofek? A cross between Zionism and feminism, argues Eileen Watts.

Ilan Fuchs on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's unique view on women's Torah learning.

Marina Zilbergerts presents the philosophical questions posed by Chaim Grade's “My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner,” and compares his arguments to those of other major thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche.