Scholarship

It is customary to celebrate Tu Bi-Shevat by eating fruits and reciting the She-Hehiyanu blessing on them. This custom, however, has proved challenging in recent years as advances in technology have made it difficult to find new fruit—as defined by halakhah—to say the She-Hehiyanu

Yehoshua Pfeffer on self-abnegating vs. life-affirming teshuva.

Baruch Sterman, founder of the @Ptil Tekhelet Institute, tells the story of Rav Rabinovitch's pivotal role in the discovery of the tekhelet - and an episode of "The Worst Jobs in History," a 2004-2006 BBC series.

Tzvi Sinensky suggests that the Megillah itself confronts the question of Purim's legitimacy.

The Talmudic story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza is often used to highlight the destructive consequences of baseless hatred. In an intriguing reading, David Hellman suggests that the hatred that motivated the tale’s participants is more complex than meets the eye.

As we begin to read Sefer Shemot, Yosef Lindell explores Koren Publishers' new series, The Tanakh of the Land of Israel, the first volume to use Rabbi Sacks’ Humash translation.

Eliezer Finkelman discusses the meaning of perfect repentance.

As another Pesach in isolation approaches, Will Friedman examines how Rabbinic texts take solo sedarim into account.

Gila Bieler-Hoch reviews Hilkhot Nashim, published by JOFA and Maggid Books.

Yakov Nagen examines attitudes towards Islam in Jewish thought.