Scholarship

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

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.

In honor of yesterday's Daf Yomi Siyum on Masekhet Eiruvin, Yaakov Jaffe describes how online maps and other technological tools have better enabled communities such as Boston/Cambridge to measure their tehum shabbat.

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

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.

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.

Shlomo Zuckier presents Rav Aharon Lichtenstein's own thoughts on academic Talmud.

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

Ben Greenfield looks at the similarity between Sefirah observances and quarantine, and suggests a new way to understand the connection.

Purim - Armed with feminist and political theory, Don Seeman probes the depths of Malbim's Esther commentary.