Scholarship

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

Chaim Trachtman squares biology with Spinoza and Maimonides.

Yaakov Jaffe explores four themes of Psalm 24 as recited on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

What theological language can we use to describe our current pandemic moment? In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Jeremy Brown takes scope of the ancient and modern notions of plague theodicy and reviews some ideas from the 2021 National Jewish Book Award Winner Torah in a Time of Plague.

Did elite rabbinic figures jumpstart Bais Yaakov, or was it a grassroots women's movement? Leslie Ginsparg Klein explains.

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

In his latest for Lehrhaus, Steven Gotlib considers Neo-Hasidism’s continued inroads into Orthodox thought and practice in his review of Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut, the Orthodox Forum volume edited by Shlomo Zuckier.

Zev Eleff examines some of the toys peddled around by mitzvah merchants and other fascinating features of Ultra-Orthodox culture. 

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli examines the complexities of interpersonal conflict and forgiveness which are demonstrated in the Talmud.

How can repeated tropes in rabbinic aggada help us to understand the rabbis' values--and how they related to Tanakh? Moshe Isaacson explores a variety of examples, suggesting that the question has only begun to be examined.