Jewish Thought and History

Dina Brawer explores "certainty" and "doubt" in rabbinic tradition.

Sarah Rindner contemplates whether Torah u-Madda as it’s sometimes interpreted can engender unreflective allegiance to trends in contemporary society that might harm our religious communities.

Ariel Krakowski explores the connection between Maimonides and the Stoics.

Steven Gotlib reviews Raphael Zarum’s Questioning Belief: Torah and Tradition in an Age of Doubt.

Tzvi Sinensky explores the Talmudic version of the Roman myth of Narcissus

Philo of Alexandria may rightly be called the first systematic Jewish philosopher, yet for many centuries his work was totally unknown to Jewish audiences. Dovid Cambpell argues for his continued relevance to modern Judaism.

Alex Ozar analyzes the writings of R. Soloveitchik and several other contemporary Jewish thinkers to argue for the existence of a Mitzvah of become a prophet.

Hasdai Crescas criticized Maimonides for counting belief as a Mitzvah, arguing that we have no control over what we believe. Dovid Campbell explores a surprisingly common defense of Maimonides that places his views closer to those of Crescas than we might have initially imagined.

Ari Hoffman explores the expansive visions of Jewish peoplehood embedded in two major, recently published novels

Zev Eleff on a uniquely American Jewish "righteous commodity" Gedolim Cards