Scholarship

Lawrence Kaplan responds to Eli Putterman's essay on Reish Laqish and sexuality.

Dovid Campbell explores sources indicating that curiosity is a Jewish value.

Moshe Kurtz regales us with his love of science fiction & fantasy, suggesting that the genre’s literature, movies, and games can teach Torah lessons in ethics and morality, but cautioning that Torah u-Madda ought not to become Torah u-Movies.

Our modern Shabbat experience has been called "a taste of the world to come." But was this the case for the first Shabbat in the desert? Ezra Zuckerman Sivan considers the question.

Benjamin Barer traces the word Hevel through Jewish texts, showing how the use of the same word can teach us both about the wisdom of Kohelet we read this past Shabbat and the character of Hevel who we will read about in this week's Parashah.

Can we learn Torah from Star Wars, superheroes, or the hit Netflix show ‘The Crown’? Olivia Friedman, a teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, says yes, arguing that bringing pop culture into the Judaic studies classroom in a meaningful way not only makes learning more fun, but models the type of integration that Modern Orthodoxy stands for.

Aton Holzer offers an existential perspective on the transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkot and applies some Heideggerian concepts to the festival of gathering.

How does Reish Lakish’s classic view of repentance help to account for the tragic dissolution of his relationship with Rabbi Yohanan?

Elli Fischer reads one of Rashi's most famous comments against the grain.

Did the Founding Fathers study Kabbalah? Yisroel Ben-Porat reviews Brian Ogren’s new book Kabbalah and the Founding of America.