Talmud and Halakhah

The epikorus and the min apparently represent two different kinds of heretic in traditional Jewish literature. Elisha Price traces the evolving meaning of each term in Hazal and medieval writings, clarifying the differences between the major genres of Jewish heresy and helping illuminate for us why they matter.

The exhaustive Talmud commentary of Provencal scholar Menachem ben Shlomo Ha-Meiri was largely disregarded by Jewish scholars for centuries. Its revived popularity in the twentieth century presents a puzzle, then, for which multiple explanations have been offered. Michael Broyde considers the approaches advanced by his teacher Dr. Haym Soloveitchik and by others, before proposing his own explanation, focusing on Meiri's unique level of access to and use of Yerushalmi texts.

In this analysis of Avodah Zara 3b, which states what God does throughout each day, Marina Zilbergerts uncovers ideas about divine consciousness and human consciousness alike.

Jonathcan Muskat explores the different ways Rabbi Soloveitchik communicated about Mehitzah.

The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.

Daniel Shlian explores instances of pun usage in Jewish text.

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli explores the relationship between the Talmudic term of "asmakhta" and the way we view our past, present, and future.

  Isaac (Amichai) Roszler Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Dünner (1833-1911), also known as Ritzad, was one of the first modern academic scholars of the Bavli, the Babylonian...

As part of his Legal Fictions creative project, Dovid Campbell reimagines the content of Mishna Shekalim 6:2 in an evocative narrative of disability and Temple service.

David Polsky explores a passage in the Sifrei that is key to articulating a Halakahic position on withholding food as a military tactic.