Scholarship

In a fascinating analysis, Gavriel Lakser places the Megillah in the context of the overarching struggle between the Jewish people and Amalek.

A response to Yosef Bronstein's study on Halakhah's engagement with societal norms

Yakov Nagen examines attitudes towards Islam in Jewish thought.

Tzvi Sinensky comments on the pitfalls of being overly dependent on the "Talmudic reid."

Alex Ozar explores wartime law in the Rambam.

Ezra Sivan asks what light the narratives of Shabbat and the scouts shed on some critical social questions.

Bezalel Naor translates and contextualizes a poem by Pinchas Peli about the home of Rav Kook.

Sharon Galper Grossman and Shamai A. Grossman, leading doctors writing from quarantine, explain why even the Noda be-Yehuda, who requires that the sick person be before us, would agree that a public health crisis is subject to the leniencies of pikuah nefesh.

In his newest review, former Lehrhaus webmaster Steve Gotlib looks at Hasidim, Suffering and Renewal: The Prewar and Holocaust Legacy of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira and examines scholars’ differing views on whether the Aish Kodesh experienced a crisis of faith due to the Holocaust.

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.