Scholarship

Why do biblical and rabbinic texts preserve so many names, places, and seemingly unnecessary details? Chaim Trachtman argues that these textual additions are more than literary embellishments: they strengthen communal memory, reinforce covenantal identity, and help transform religious tradition into lived history.

Joshua Yuter considers rabbinic conceptions of justice in the age of #metoo.

Joey Rosenfeld takes Kafka and Rav Nahman for a spin, on their timely drey-ing of the tops!

Shlomo Zuckier explores some surprising connections between the Talmud and the field of behavioral economics.

Moshe Kurtz explores halakhic and hashkafic considerations surrounding bringing young children to shul.

Jesse Lempel argues that the halakhic category of pidyon shevuyim might extend to prisoners held in unsafe conditions, safe as during the current pandemic.

Marc Michael Epstein explores the nature of animal motifs in medieval Jewish manuscripts.

The biblical account of the holiday we refer to as Shavuot bears no relationship at all to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The emergence of the association between this harvest festival and the Sinai covenant has therefore occupied both traditional and academic thinkers for centuries. Tzvika Aviv argues for a previously unexplored approach to the question, one which bridges the mystical insights of the Zohar with current scientific knowledge regarding wheat genetics.

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli offers a novel interpretation of the Talmudic sugya of miun that offers profound insight into how the Rabbis dealt with the problem of child sexual abuse.

Outside the Land of Israel, we add an extra day to several holidays. Michael Kurin wonders: why not on Hanukkah?