Remembering Professor Louis Feldman, z”l
Ari Lamm writes in tribute to the late Louis Feldman, examining his scholarship in light of personal experience.
There’s No Need to Sacrifice Sacrifice: A Response to Rabbi Herzl Hefter
Tzvi Sinensky responds to Herzl Hefter's Akeida essay.
Insanity and Hope
Warren Zev Harvey reflects on the pain and fear of Israel’s current moment, finding unexpected hope in R. Joseph Kaspi’s anti-deterministic theory of history. The essay was originally published in Hebrew and translated by the author.
With Liberty and Presents for All
Through an analysis of Hanukkah ads, Yael Buechler explains how Yiddish newspapers used the Old Country language to acculturate Jews to the New Country.
Revisiting Mendelssohn’s Living Script
Tzvi Sinensky responds to Lawrence Kaplan and continues the discussion on Mendelssohn and Jewish law.
Modern Orthodox Theology in a Post-Soloveitchik World
David Fried reviews a recent book that considers the divergence of Rabbis Yitz Greenberg, David Hartman, and Jonathan Sacks from the teachings of R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Separation of Powers and Majority Rule: Insights from the Talmud, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Mendelssohn
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.
Resurrecting Moses Mendelssohn
Tzvi Sinensky
As chronicled in Robert Putnam’s 2000 classic book, Bowling Alone, loneliness is one of the vexing challenges of modern life. The advent of the...
The Baptized Jew Who Had a Lot to Teach Us about Orthodox Judaism
Peter Berger, Daniel Korobkin argues, offers an important lens to understand Orthodox Judaism, its religious features and institutions.
Outside Help in the Teshuvah Process
With Hoshanah Rabbah today and the theme of repentance in mind, Jack Cohen explores the role that outsiders play in one's teshuva process through an enigmatic midrash instructing one to return a person to themselves.