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...

Remembering the Future:Reflections on the Six Remembrancesfor a People That Needs to Learn to...

In many siddurim, Six Remembrances from biblical Jewish history are printed following the morning service. They do not appear chronologically, nor in their order of appearance in the Torah. This article suggests that their arrangement forms an arc emphasizing the importance of Jewish education.as a bridge to the future.

The Destruction of Babylonia, Detailed:  R. Yonatan’s Petihta to Megillat Esther

Tamar Weissman and Batnadiv HaKarmi explore R. Yonatan's introduction to Megillat Esther, per Masekhet Megillah in the Talmud, and its relationship to biblical history.

Leadership Through Retreat: A New Perspective on the Book of Esther

The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.

A Word Search Adventure

Mollie Fish reviews Mitchell First’s new book, From Eden to Exodus: A Journey into Hebrew Words in Bereshit and Shemot.

A Torah Theodicy: The Very Goodness of Evil

Gavriel Lakser offers a new approach to the problem of evil based on the beginning of Genesis.