Scholarship

David Moster explores the meaning of Peri Etz Hadar.

Steven Gotlib reviews Sam Leben’s book A Guide for the Jewish Undecided: A Philosopher Makes the Case for Orthodox Judaism.

What was Alexander Hamilton's relationship to Judaism? In his review of a new book about Hamilton's Jewish world, Lehrhaus editor Yisroel Ben-Porat explores the arguments to be made for a "Jewish" founding father.

Thanks in part to several new publications, portions of the Orthodox world have been engaging with modern biblical scholarship in a more significant way than ever before. Gil Perl provides a four-step framework for how Jewish days schools might profitably teach many aspects of biblical criticism that do not conflict with our mesorah.

Louis Jacobs, the controversial British rabbi and theologian, died 15 years ago. Steven Gotlib reviews Harry Freedman’s new book on Jacobs’ life, and considers how what happened to Jacobs should inform the way we draw the boundaries of Orthodoxy today.

Suzanne Last Stone reviews Chaim Saiman's Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law.

In older times, Christian New Year’s Day celebrations were sometimes marked by antisemitic incidents. Although such days are behind us, Tzvi Sinensky recalls the antisemitic canard that Jewish men menstruated, a pervasive and disturbing myth that demeaned Jews and all women.

How successful is the new book, Reclaiming Dignity: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women, at setting forth a new Torah-based vision for modesty? Laurie Novick offers a careful review, carefully considering both the personal essays and halakhic/hashkafic analyses set forward in this important work.

Shlomo Spivack discusses the anti-spirituality of his teacher, Rav Menachem Froman.

Ariel Evan Mayse discusses Neo-Hasidism through the eyes of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky.