Scholarship

Judah Kerbel explores how differing approaches to listening to music during Sefirat ha-Omer balance the appropriate role for subjectivity in halakhic decision-making.

The debate about Torah u-Madda and pop culture continues. Noah Marlowe argues that Chaim Potok's literature offers a useful conceptual framework for, and embodiment of, a profound confrontation between Judaism and elite elements of general culture.

Benjamin Barer traces the word Hevel through Jewish texts, showing how the use of the same word can teach us both about the wisdom of Kohelet we read this past Shabbat and the character of Hevel who we will read about in this week's Parashah.

How did Esther shape the way Puritans saw the ideal role of the contemporary woman? Cotton Mather, a major player in the Salem Witch Trials, had much to say in his Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. Stuart Halpern of Yeshiva University explains, wishing us all a Puritan Purim.

Susan Jablow on reading Tanakh through the eyes of a ba'alat teshuva

"Who Knows" seems to have become a recurring question for so many of us. Erica Brown shares personal and biblical reflections on the meaning of this phrase for the age of coronavirus.

Jason Herman examines whether or not rabbis should talk politics in shul.

Zev Eleff explores how the Jewish family anchored Rabbi Norman Lamm's sermons and thought during the destabilizing 1960s.

Eli Rubin presents a stirring passage from the Zohar, with the Lubavitcher Rebbe's commentary.

Steven Gotlib reviews Yehuda (Jerome) Gellman’s book on neo-traditional Jewish theology.