Scholarship

Steven Gotlib reviews Eugene Korn’s To Be a Holy People: Jewish Tradition and Ethical Values, a book which asks hard questions about whether Halakhah can integrate with the demands of contemporary ethics.

What exactly did Rav Moshe Feinstein hold regarding our obligations toward secular law? Does Halakhah distinguish between the first forty days and afterward for gentiles? Michael Broyde responds to his critics.

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.

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.

  Aton M. Holzer The fifteenth of Av – among the most minor of minor festivals on the Jewish calendar – is marked in the diaspora...

What does the makeup of the altar drainage pipes tell us about the nature of holiness? Shlomo Zuckier explores!

In her winning Ateret Zvi essay, Leah Sarna explores two simultaneously true stories about pregnancy: it is at once a beautiful, incredible miracle, and also a demanding journey, both physically and mentally, that often feels more like a catastrophe. Studying the Torah's accounts of pregnancy in Tazria and Rivkah's life, Sarna offers a moving analysis of what it means to hear, tell, and live these stories.

Yosef Lindell explores the true nature of the Aseret ha-Dibrot.

In the next installment of our Torah u-Madda symposium, Dr. Erica Brown reflects on the concepts and values expressed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt"l in his discussions on the integration of Torah and secular life.

The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.