Jewish Thought and History

Elli Fischer explores the ideological components of developments in Hanukkah traditions.

This essay by Aaron Zeitlin—originally published in Yiddish in 1967 and translated here into English by Daniel Kraft—explores Aaron’s father Hillel Zeitlin’s approach to anti-semitism by way of the Book of Jonah.

AJ Berkovitz explores the "life" of Jewish books, from authors to owners to outside the margins.

This article was written and accepted for publication in the summer of 5783/2023 and scheduled to appear after the holidays. Because of the outbreak of Israel’s “Iron Swords” war with Ḥamas following the murderous attack on Israel on Shabbat/Simḥat Torah (7 October, 2023), we agreed that publication needed to be postponed. Now, five months into the war with no end in sight, we are nevertheless witness to renewed political tensions, public demonstrations, disagreements and paralysis in appointing judges and the President of the Supreme Court, together with resumption of talk of the “judicial reform.” Despite the continuing tragedy of the war in the south and warfare in the north, a review of how our sources treat the separation of powers and majority rule may help us avoid repeating some of the mistakes of the pre-war political and ideological divisions in Israel and contribute to a more reasoned consideration of the issues.

Aryeh Klapper with some new translation-stylings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's Halakhic Man.

Bezalel Naor translates and contextualizes a poem by Pinchas Peli about the home of Rav Kook.

Ari Lamm on the Bat Kol in rabbinic literature and its implications for Orthodox discourse

How do Moses Mendelssohn and Revelation jibe? Judah Kerbel offers some perspective.

What was on Nehama Leibowitz's bookshelf? Her authoritative biographer tells all, just in time for Nehama's 20th Yahrtzeit.

As 2022 comes to a close, the Lehrhaus team is proud to feature some highlights from our contributions this past year. Yet again, we have published at least one hundred original pieces across a wide variety of genres.