Talmud and Halakhah

In a piece that resonates today, Tzvi Sinensky examines what made the Jews' salvation from the plague of the firstborns so miraculous.

Shlomo Zuckier surveys and analyzes the debate over Zoom Seders during coronavirus.

David Fried explores the humra of pat Yisrael during the aseret yemei teshuvah.

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.

Shloime Schwartz looks at the numerous lessons about Teshuvah that the commentaries derive from the story of Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya.

Michael Broyde offers a new theory for why halakhah obligates women in some time-bound positive mitzvot and exempts them from others.

Lawrence Kaplan responds to Eli Putterman's essay on Reish Laqish and sexuality.

Elinatan Kupferberg argues that the boundaries between Torah and Madda have blurred and evolved throughout Jewish intellectual history. This erudite analysis upends our assumptions about Torah u-Madda and breathtakingly reimagines its past, present, and future.

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

Dr. Chaim Trachtman explores the role of essentialism within Orthodox Judaism