Jewish Thought and History

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

William Kolbrener offers insight into the intellectual underpinnings of the Rav's 1932 interview recently re-published by The Lehrhaus.

We will all be much more distant from each other this Rosh Hashanah. That’s why, argues Ranana Dine, it’s time to revive the tradition of sending physical greeting cards.

Those of us who feel deeply connected and indebted to Hasidism should ask ourselves a difficult and perhaps painful question: Is Netivot Shalom the sefer that we want to represent us to the rest of Am Yisrael?

Yisroel Ben-Porat offers historical, hashkafic, and personal reflections on what’s often called the “Judeo-Christian” tradition and whether a Torah u-Madda outlook can embrace the study of Christianity.

Chaim Trachtman squares biology with Spinoza and Maimonides.

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

If Kant or Hegel had read Rambam or the Shulhan Arukh, they might have known that Jewish law does not actually proscribe the creation of images. But that was not the way of history. It is important to reclaim visual culture and aesthetics for religious Judaism so that beauty can be allowed to inspire halakhically bound actions, to color worship, and give meaning to our rituals.

Rafi Eis responds to Meir Soloveichik on the role of Jews and Judaism in today's political climate.

Gil Perl argues that Modern Orthodox currently lacks a “Hedgehog Concept,” namely something at their core that they passionately believe they do better than anyone else in the world. He argues that Or Goyim, as articulated by 19th century luminaries like Netziv and Hirsch, is the Hedgehog concept that can engage Modern Orthodox Youth in a postmodern world.