Scholarship

Are today's rabbis allowed to initiate new prohibitions? Aryeh Klapper analyzes a responsum on the issue of halakhic innovation regarding new technologies.

Shimon Laufer examines how Rabbinic understanding of the holiday of Passover influenced the holiday of Purim, and how one of the oldest manuscripts of the Mishnah hints that the converse may be true as well.

Last year at this time, when the pandemic brought tremendous upheaval to Jewish communal institutions the mikveh remained open for use. In this expansive piece, Mijal Bitton and Elana Stein Hain examine the communal response to mikveh during COVID-19, explore the experiences of women who chose to use--or not use--the mikveh during this time, and offer constructive recommendations for the future.

David Fried argues that the question of Moses seeing the face of God reveals the tragic choice Moses made in choosing between his own spirituality and that of his people.

Rami Reiner examines how our understanding of a Talmudic passage could change if we allow for the possibility of it being a comedy.

In this review of a new book by Aryeh Solomon, Ilan Fuchs explores how for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, teaching and learning are a sacred calling leading toward spiritual growth.

Steven Gotlib explores similarities between Rabbis Dov Singer and Arthur Green in their models of prayer and how this model can make prayer meaningful even when experiencing doubts in one’s faith.

Francis Nataf explores Malbim’s sophisticated engagement with Kantian ethics.

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.

Lehrhaus Founding and Consulting Editor Elli Fischer on why R. Mendel of Rimanov is said to have spoken about the man every Shabbat for 22 consecutive years, and why reciting parshat ha-man the Tuesday before Parshat Beshalah might not be a segulah for parnasa, but R. Mendel's exhortation to be content with our lot.