Talmud and Halakhah

Rabbi Daniel Reifman reviews Christine Hayes' Whats Divine about Divine Law?

Yisroel Ben-Porat offers historical, hashkafic, and personal reflections on what’s often called the “Judeo-Christian” tradition and whether a Torah u-Madda outlook can embrace the study of Christianity.

Steven Gotlib reviews Eugene Korn’s To Be a Holy People: Jewish Tradition and Ethical Values, a book which asks hard questions about whether Halakhah can integrate with the demands of contemporary ethics.

The secular calendar has its leap day on Feb. 29. On the Jewish calendar, our leap day is 30 Adar I, since Adar in a non-leap year always has 29 days. Yaakov Taubes explores all of the Halakhot pertaining to this unique day.

Elli Fischer examines the interplay between Talmudic Halakhah and Aggadah.

It is customary to celebrate Tu Bi-Shevat by eating fruits and reciting the She-Hehiyanu blessing on them. This custom, however, has proved challenging in recent years as advances in technology have made it difficult to find new fruit—as defined by halakhah—to say the She-Hehiyanu

As Daf Yomi learners begin studying Shekalim, Tamara Morsel-Eisenberg offers an erudite answer to the question: What is Yerushalmi Shekalim doing in the Babylonian Talmud?

Josh Yuter looks at the ways that Halakha takes into consideration, and responds to, human feelings.

Ari Elias-Bachrach examines the Israel Cheif Rabbi's recent decision not to bury the mother of a get-refuser.

Shimon Laufer examines how Rabbinic understanding of the holiday of Passover influenced the holiday of Purim, and how one of the oldest manuscripts of the Mishnah hints that the converse may be true as well.