Talmud and Halakhah

Jeremy Brown discusses some remarkable Talmudic and historical precedents for social distancing during pandemics.

Ari Lamm explores a recent instance of talmudic censorship, as well as its implications for thinking about Jewish-Christian relations and American society at large.

The exhaustive Talmud commentary of Provencal scholar Menachem ben Shlomo Ha-Meiri was largely disregarded by Jewish scholars for centuries. Its revived popularity in the twentieth century presents a puzzle, then, for which multiple explanations have been offered. Michael Broyde considers the approaches advanced by his teacher Dr. Haym Soloveitchik and by others, before proposing his own explanation, focusing on Meiri's unique level of access to and use of Yerushalmi texts.

Gila Bieler-Hoch reviews Hilkhot Nashim, published by JOFA and Maggid Books.

Rebecca Cypess considers the life and work of the Italian Jewish Renaissance composer Salamone Rossi, his rabbinic supporter Leon Modena, and the controversies over 17th century polyphonic music in the synagogue.

David Fried explores the humra of pat Yisrael during the aseret yemei teshuvah.

William Gewirtz discusses the necessity of a Halakhic Dateline.

Levi Morrow explores how the Rabbis use creative exegesis to save the world from drowning in a flood

Yosef Lindell offers a brief history of Pesah guides.

Moshe Koppel Reviews Chaim Saiman's Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law.