Manna, Mitzvot, and Meaning

Ned Krasnopolsky explores the roles of meaning and obedience in matan Torah.

A Mathematical Reevaluation of the Prohibition on Counting Jews

  Mark Glass I. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away. … Growing up, that’s how the gabba’im of my youth minyan would determine if...

How the Song of Deborah Utilizes the Blessings of Jacob: A Study in Rhetorical...

Surprisingly, Bible scholars have not addressed the remarkable intertextual conversation between Jacob's blessings in Genesis 49 and Deborah's song in Judges 5. Michael Bernstein offers his original etymological analysis of the two poetic texts.

Why Halakhah Is Not About Winning

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli examines the complexities of interpersonal conflict and forgiveness which are demonstrated in the Talmud.

A Twice Told Tale: Uncovering the Intertextuality of Historical Aggadot

How can repeated tropes in rabbinic aggada help us to understand the rabbis' values--and how they related to Tanakh? Moshe Isaacson explores a variety of examples, suggesting that the question has only begun to be examined.

Reclaiming Shepherd Leadership — For Our Leaders, For Ourselves

Drawing upon the teachings of the Piaseczner Rebbe, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and others, Yiscah Smith proposes a model for reimagining contemporary Jewish leadership on both the communal and personal levels.

Are Jews Part of the Global Village? Updating the Paradigms of Tzedakah 

Francis Nataf argues that the Jewish ethics of mutual aid force us to re-examine our obligations to non-Jews within and outside of our communities.

Hearing the Shepherd from Tekoa

Ethan Schwartz reviews Yitchak Etshalom’s new volume on the prophet Amos, considering ways in which the author succeeds and fails to recreate the divine roar of Amos’ message.

The Shekhinah as a Tool for Political Critique: The Mystico-Political Thought of Rabbi Menachem...

Twelve years after the passing of R. Menachem Froman, his daughter-in-law, the scholar and activist Tchiya Froman, considers R. Froman’s literary critique of the Gush Emunim settlement enterprise and his determination that Judaism requires a feminine revolution.

Shabbat on the Lower East Side Through the Prism of an Early American Posek

  Oran Zweiter The first collection of she’elot u-teshuvot (rabbinic responsa to communal queries) printed in the United States, Ohel Yosef by Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Fried...