Scholarship

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli offers a careful examination of an enigmatic discussion in the Shulhan Arukh’s laws on neighborly relations. She demonstrates how “radical presence” and attention to sensory details is an essential strategy for halakhic decision-making.

Moshe Kurtz looks as discomfort as a factor in Halakha

Is true forgiveness possible? Michael Kurin explores the doubts raised by prominent twentieth century philosophers and considers how Jewish tradition offers a radically different conception of repentance and forgiveness, one that enables people to alter their reality vis-à-vis God and one another.

What is the meaning of a biblical song? Writing for Parshat Ha'azinu and in memory of her beloved cousin, Shira Shaindel Rodman (née Brilliant) z”l, Elana Stein Hain reviews Geula Twersky's theory of biblical poetry as portrayed in her 2022 book Torah Song.

Meir Ekstein contransts Rav Soloveitchik’s and Rav Lichtenstein’s respective approaches to Teshuva.

Alan Jotkowitz shares insights into Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuvah

Yaakov Jaffe explores four themes of Psalm 24 as recited on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Pressed for time, people often skip reciting the korbanot section of the morning prayers. With the High Holidays approaching, Judah Kerbel makes the case that the korbanot are far more central and halakhically significant to our prayers than we often realize.

Hasdai Crescas criticized Maimonides for counting belief as a Mitzvah, arguing that we have no control over what we believe. Dovid Campbell explores a surprisingly common defense of Maimonides that places his views closer to those of Crescas than we might have initially imagined.

Lawrence Kaplan responds to AJ Berkovitz’s article on the many conflicting interpretations of a passage in Midrash Tehillim, highlighting two different approaches advanced by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.