Scholarship

Chesky Kopel looks at the various tellings and retellings of the controversial deal that Rudolph Kastner made with Nazi leadership in Budapest and argues that they represent a modern-day Midrashic presentation of the history.

Did Rabbeinu Bahya mention a lightning rod centuries before it was discovered? Yaakov Taubes takes us on a journey through science, magic, and religion to help explain this medieval commentator’s cryptic comment about the Tower of Babel.

Can we learn Torah from Star Wars, superheroes, or the hit Netflix show ‘The Crown’? Olivia Friedman, a teacher at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, says yes, arguing that bringing pop culture into the Judaic studies classroom in a meaningful way not only makes learning more fun, but models the type of integration that Modern Orthodoxy stands for.

Yaakov Jaffe explores Yehuda Ha-Levi's Yom Le-Yabasha.

Did the Founding Fathers study Kabbalah? Yisroel Ben-Porat reviews Brian Ogren’s new book Kabbalah and the Founding of America.

Concluding our series on the recent Siyum ha-Shas, Channa Lockshin Bob wonders: What do we want the next Women's Siyum ha-Shas to look like?

Mark Glass puts the Akeidah in conversation with the surrounding narratives of the book of Genesis.

Yisrael Kashkin and Jeffrey Saks provide a timeline for the Rav's American arrival.

Judy Taubes Sterman examines Judges Chapter 3.

How can we respond to a Seder during which it is prohibited to host guests? Yitzchak Etshalom and David Block each offer unique tefillot to be recited at our Seder table this year.