Tag: prayer

Avraham’s challenge to God’s planned destruction of Sodom raises the fundamental ethical problem of collective punishment. The resolution of this challenge, Sruli Fruchter explains, enables Avraham to realize God’s highest ideals and to confront the conflict between compassion for oppressors and consideration for their victims.

What would Jewish life in outer space look like? In this short story, Joseph Helmreich imagines the Jewish community transplanted into a new life among the stars

At what point in Jewish thought does artificial intelligence go too far? In this short story, Olga Lempert writes about a world where humanity itself might be replaced by the machines they create

How can one pray after sinning? In this poem, Dov Frank suggests seeking redemption in unexpected places.

In his first article for the Lehrhaus, Akiva Garner explores the phenomenon of vulnerability through both Jewish texts and modern psychology–and highlights its unrecognized significance in Jewish living and meaning.

Post-pandemic proposals to omit hazarat ha-shatz on a permanent basis have been soundly rejected by halakhic authorities. Is this due exclusively to halakhic considerations, or are additional factors at play? Yosie Levine contends that Ashkenazic rabbinic opposition to 19th-century attempts to eliminate hazarat ha-shatz may still be shaping halakhic discourse today.

Steven Gotlib explores similarities between Rabbis Dov Singer and Arthur Green in their models of prayer and how this model can make prayer meaningful even when experiencing doubts in one’s faith.

Akiva Shapiro depicts the experience of outdoor prayers during the pandemic.

Psalm 121, recited fervently in online prayer spaces and from the Senate floor alike since March, is subject to a seemingly mind-boggling array of interpretations. Michael Weiner blazes a path through the interpretive chaos.

As the tumultuous events of 2020 continue into the heady days of summer, the Lehrhaus is looking back, with short reflections on the moments we have been thinking about. Our first reflection is from new Lehrhaus editor Yosef Lindell, thinking about his lonely return to communal prayer.