Talmud and Halakhah

In honor of Hanukkah, Admiel Kosman considers literary and aggadic traditions that depict holy people as burning flames or sources of light. He proposes that these traditions be read in light of Martin Buber’s insight regarding the dialogical personality.

Yaakov Taubes explores the background to Maimonides’s explanation for how the Mishnah is ordered.

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.

When Synagogues Reopen, May the Congregation Permit a Bar Mitzvah Boy to Make Up His Torah Reading? Moshe Kurtz weighs in.

Rami Reiner examines how our understanding of a Talmudic passage could change if we allow for the possibility of it being a comedy.

Dan Margulies explains the Hazon Ish's discussion about the problem of using electricity on Shabbat, with implications for Zoom Sedarim.

Can individual autonomy be reconciled with the practice of Halakhah? It can and must, insisted Rav Nachum Rabinovich zz"l. In honor of Rav Rabinovich's sheloshim this past Thursday, David Silverstein explains.

Jeffrey Woolf contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Dina Brawer explores "certainty" and "doubt" in rabbinic tradition.

Moshe Kurtz examines the Torah’s prohibition on cross-dressing as a lens to view the shifting contemporary gender norms.