Revisiting Maimonides’s Merkavah Chapters
In this timely piece, David Fried analyzes Maimonides' explanation of the ma'aseh merkavah in light of the Talmud's strictures on its teaching outlined in Hagigah. Fried's analysis reveals how Maimonides changed course from the Aristotelianism that he posited at other points in his career.
From Graduation to Contagion: Jewish Physicians Confront Plague in 1631
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.
The Pregnant Sotah: A Case Study in the Ethics of Abortion
Yisroel Ben-Porat grapples with whether the case of the pregnant Sotah has implications for the debates surrounding abortion.
Judaism is About Two Kinds of Love
Warren Zev Harvey
Review of Shai Held, Judaism is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). Originally...
A Time to Mourn: Aveilut as Minor Holiday
Ben Greenfield’s essay, winner of Hadar's annual Ateret Zvi Prize, explores why Hazal chose to situate Hilkhot Aveilut in tractate Moed Katan.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Theory of Education
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.
Of Deceptions and Conceptions: Rereading Tamar in Light of Rivkah
Sarah Golubtchik suggests that the numerous parallels between the puzzling episode of Yehuda and Tamar and the story of Yaakov, Rivkah, and the Berakhot are the key to unlocking this mysterious episode.
When Shabbat first provided a Taste of the World to Come
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.
Mikra Bikkurim at the Seder: A View from Deuteronomy
Tzvi Sinensky suggests that we can best understand the Haggadah against the backdrop of Sefer Devarim.
When Law Fails Us: Lessons from Rabbinic Responses to Crimes We Cannot Punish for...
Sarah Zager puts #MeToo in conversation with the Talmudic discussion of the death penalty.