Scholarship

Judah Kerbel discusses why we say an abbreviated Hallel on the last six days of Pesah and contemplates what that says about the war in Israel; self-defense is a must, as is gratitude toward God, but we also hold space for the losses on the other side.

In a follow up to her recent piece about Joseph, Batya Hefter traces Judah's character development through the eyes of the Ishbitz-Radzyn masters.

Aryeh Dienstag and Penina Dienstag respond to the articles by Sharon Galper-Grossman, Shamai Grossman, and Alan Jotkowitz regarding vaccine allocation.

A call for a new Modern Orthodox Humash, and a history of the current ones, by Yosef Lindell.

David Fried reviews The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries, the companion volume to the Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibit on Maimonides.

With the aid of some new primary sources, David Curwin offers a fresh view of the Rav's embrace of Rambam and his most important writings.

Contemporary physicians have been heroic in the battle against COVID-19, but what was it like to be one of a handful of Jewish doctors confronting the Bubonic Plague during the 17th-century in Italy? Prolific medical halakhist and historian Eddie Reichman takes a close look at the four Jewish graduates of the Padua medical school class of 1623.

In his review of Michael Hattin’s commentaries on the books of Joshua and Judges, Francis Nataf explores how greater collaboration between creative Tanakh teachers could help reduce the number of overly speculative readings.

In his first and last foray in this field, Zev Eleff tries his hand at some Modern Orthodox counter-history.  

Yaakov Jaffe explores a common synagogue practice, and why it doesn't seem so halakhic. minyan,