Scholarship

Through the lens of social science and game theory, Ezra Zuckerman Sivan connects three stories in Tanakh of people who threatened the social order: the blasphemer, the wood-gatherer, and Achan.

Was the teiva an attempt to save Moshe's life? David Fried challenges our assumptions about the purpose of the wicker basket in the river.

With masterful translation, Tzvi Novick offers a glimpse of Israeli culture to our English readers.

Tzvi Sinensky reimagines the utilitarian case for Torah u-Madda. Far from seeing the study of Madda as a concession to the need to earn a livelihood, the new utilitarianism uses cutting-edge scholarship to solve some of the most pressing problems in our schools and communities.

What do the wisdom of traditional Jewish texts and the recent findings of modern psychology have in common? Marc Eichenbaum finds commonalities in both to promote a character-driven approach to Jewish education.

Zach Truboff looks at the miracle of the Hanukkah oil through the lens of Franz Rosenzweig and emphasizes the importance of the belief in miracles for a meaningful religiosity.

The call to learn Torah at night surprisingly comes from a verse in Lamentations. Yaakov Weinstein discusses what we can learn from this, and what it means for the practice of staying up on Shavuot.

The CDC and FDA have recently endorsed booster shots for the Covid vaccine. But there are those who argue that those doses should be allocated to third world countries instead. Sharon Galper Grossman and Shamai Grossman weigh in about what Halakhah has to say about the issue.

Zev Eleff and Ari Lamm cap off the Lehrhaus Symposium on the OU statement.

Lawrence Kaplan defends his translation of Halakhic Man and calls for more efforts to make Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's writings accessible to English readers.