Tag: torah

Whose idea was Sinai? A midrash contends that Sinai was first conceived by Jethro. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan supports this Midrash from the Torah's text, and explains why Jethro was the appropriate vehicle for providing the rationale of Sinai.

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.

Ron Ennis explores the similarities and differences between Rambam, Maharal, and Rema, in their approaches to conflicts between science and Torah.

Ned Krasnopolsky explores the roles of meaning and obedience in matan Torah.

Steven Gotlib review Miri Freud-Kandel’s new book on the relevance of Louis Jacobs to contemporary Orthodox theology.

In this essay, Weinberg reflects on the symbolic significance of tefillin and its message for our Jewish future.

In this essay, Edelman and Steinberg argue for a literature curriculum that integrates Jewish thought.

Sholom Eisenstat presents a passage of the Zohar about the inverted nuns in Parashat Beha'alotekha to explore the interplay between design and interpretation of the Torah.

Six new poems by Elhanan Nir—published here with English translation and annotation—capture the grief and discontinuity of this moment.

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