She-Hehiyanu: An Endangered Blessing Species
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
‘Knocking on Open Doors’ – Intuition and Experience in the Legal Thought of Rav...
Shimi Kaufman analyzes Rav Shimon Shkop's perspectives of halakha and human experience, through the lens of financial law.
Nine Measures
Tehila Wenger offers a short story on loss, eternity, and olive trees .
Rejoicing at the Downfall of Enemies: From Ancient Egypt to Modern Israel
The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.
Vaccine Triage in Jewish Ethics – an Intermediate Approach
Aryeh Dienstag and Penina Dienstag respond to the articles by Sharon Galper-Grossman, Shamai Grossman, and Alan Jotkowitz regarding vaccine allocation.
First Fruits: A Selection of Poems on Mishnah Bikkurim 3
In honor of Shavuot 5784, Dalia Wolfson presents five new bilingual poems that explore the themes of the third perek of Mishnah Bikkurim and contemplate their possible inversion.
Still We Rejoice: How Halakhah Guides Emotional Complexity
In the wake of recent painful times for the Jewish people, Batsheva Leah Weinstein discusses the ways halakha guides emotion through pain and joy.
The Passover Pandemic
In a piece that resonates today, Tzvi Sinensky examines what made the Jews' salvation from the plague of the firstborns so miraculous.
Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Dünner (Ritzad): A (Mostly) Forgotten Pioneer of Academic Talmud
Isaac (Amichai) Roszler
Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Dünner (1833-1911), also known as Ritzad, was one of the first modern academic scholars of the Bavli, the Babylonian...
From Burning Candles to ‘Burning’ People
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.
















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