Talmud and Halakhah

Tzvi Sinensky offers a fresh look at one of Rabbinic Judaism's most important mottos.

How did daf yomi evolve from a yeshiva-centered program to one focused on the working Jew? Zev Eleff offers a historical overview of the daf yomi revolution.

Was the Mishnah intended to serve as a legal text? This traditional assumption, which forms a central premise of the halakhic process, has been challenged by more recent scholarship. Dovid Campbell engages with this scholarship and performs his own close reading of some of the Mishnah's more enigmatic digressions to propose his conception of the Mishnah as a corpus of "found philosophy."

What exactly did Rav Moshe Feinstein hold regarding our obligations toward secular law? Does Halakhah distinguish between the first forty days and afterward for gentiles? Michael Broyde responds to his critics.

Daniel Shlian explores instances of pun usage in Jewish text.

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.

I. Introduction: The Puzzle of Vayikra 17 The mitzvah of kisuy ha-dam, the commandment to cover the blood of a slaughtered bird or wild animal,...

In its opening verses, Parshat Shoftim describes a judicial system that enshrines pursuing Tzedek, or justice, as a core value. Benjamin Barer unpacks a Gemara in Sanhedrin that provides three distinct conceptions of the obligation to pursue justice, suggesting how we might build a more sacred society.

Elli Fischer examines the interplay between Talmudic Halakhah and Aggadah.

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