Jewish Thought and History

Malka Simkovich explores how Chazal approached our sacred texts in their midrashic allegories and how this issue continues to effect our approach to the torah today.

Ariel Evan Mayse discusses Neo-Hasidism through the eyes of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky.

Jews have been confronting the concept of exile for thousands of years. How did Jewish thinkers respond to this phenomenon? @Michael Weiner outlines three medieval responses.

The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.

Did elite rabbinic figures jumpstart Bais Yaakov, or was it a grassroots women's movement? Leslie Ginsparg Klein explains.

Tzvi Goldstein responds to letters from Chaim Goldberg and Yaakov Resnik on his piece on the differences between Centrist and Haredi Orthodoxy, unpacking the view of Rav Hayyim Volozhin’s Nefesh Ha-Hayyim.

Eliav Grossman examines the Talmud's account of drinking on Purim, reading it as directed at Christian texts and traditions.

In this essay, Thomas P. Balázs considers Edgar Allan Poe as a springboard to consider what makes a life meaningful

Avi Garson traces the rise and fall of the classical Sephardic tradition and calls for a renewed return to its fundamental principles.

Shmuel Lamm examines Rabbi Norman Lamm's sermons for insights on a crucial issue.