Halakhic Discussions

Dan Margulies offers a rundown of the sukkah zip-tie construction, the next great halakhic frontier

Yaakov Jaffe traces the origins and evolution of the custom to shake the lulav in different directions.

How successful is the new book, Reclaiming Dignity: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women, at setting forth a new Torah-based vision for modesty? Laurie Novick offers a careful review, carefully considering both the personal essays and halakhic/hashkafic analyses set forward in this important work.

Chaim Saiman analyzes how the Torah's two introductions to the revelation at Sinai correspond to two perspectives on the nature of halakhic civil law.

Dan Margulies explores various opinions on where to light a Hanukah Lamp in dorms and apartments.

Leead Staller argues for a more nuanced approach to euthanasia in Halakha.

Ben Rothke takes a sober look at a new book that tries to square Orthodox Judaism with New Age Medicine.

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

Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli offers a careful examination of an enigmatic discussion in the Shulhan Arukh’s laws on neighborly relations. She demonstrates how “radical presence” and attention to sensory details is an essential strategy for halakhic decision-making.

With the High Holidays approaching, a time iconic for its songful liturgy, Moshe Kurtz scrutinizes the practice of cantors repeating words during davening.