Scholarship

What is the halakhic status of those mourning the loss of their parents-in-law? Aaron Ross, inspired by his personal experience, grapples with the lack of formal aveilut rituals for non-biological relatives.

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.

Responding to Tamar Ross’s article from two weeks ago, Steven Gotlib argues for a more traditional understanding of Divine Revelation.

Yaakov Jaffe and Menachem Butler explore the Halakhot of when fasting is proper and when it’s not.

Ranana Dine compares Christian and Jewish views on the value of having a beautiful Temple.

Many synagogue goers found the abbreviated High Holiday services we recently concluded quite appealing. Need we eventually go back to the way it was before coronavirus? Not really, argues Moshe Kurtz, surveying the substantial halakhic support for shortening the services every year.

Joshua Stadlan carefully explores the “blemishes” that invalidate a kohein for service in the Mishkan to argue that they were not an original part of God’s plan.

  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...

Yisroel Ben-Porat analyzes a Midrash offering non-misogynistic takes on the original sin.

Dan Margulies explores various opinions on where to light a Hanukah Lamp in dorms and apartments.