Jewish Thought and History

Natan Oliff explores the theological implications of teshuva in a world that is God’s prescripted story.

Leah Sarna contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Elinatan Kupferberg argues that the boundaries between Torah and Madda have blurred and evolved throughout Jewish intellectual history. This erudite analysis upends our assumptions about Torah u-Madda and breathtakingly reimagines its past, present, and future.

Yiscah Smith explores the conceptions of teshuvah presented in the writings of the Piaseczner Rebbe and the Ba’al Ha-Tanya, identifying in them a novel approach to personal growth that speaks to contemporary Jews.

Levi Morrow reviews four new books that examine and apply the thought of R. Joseph B. Solovetichik of blessed memory. Image: below

Rav Shagar's postmodern insights on accepting the yoke of Heaven, for your pre-Shavuos reading pleasure!

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

What sort of powers did Hazal have in the first century? Ari Lamm wonders.

Stephen Denker reconstructs Bert Katz's experience of Kristallnacht in Nentershausen.

Aton Holzer offers a novel re-reading of the Seder, arguing that it reflects and recreates four types of liberty that can be found in the Exodus narrative, as well as a fifth form of freedom.