Talmud and Halakhah

Rashi’s commentary to Eruvin contains many explanatory diagrams. In anticipation of the Daf Yomi cycle’s study of the tractate beginning tomorrow, Eli Genauer shares some manuscripts that shed light on whether Rashi drew these pictures.

Amitai Bin-Nun provides a fresh and intriguing perspective on the story of the Golden Calf by reading it in light of the Talmudic passage in Menahot detailing an encounter between Moses and R. Akiba on Mt. Sinai where God is tying crowns to the letters of the Torah scroll.

Lehrhaus Editor Shlomo Zuckier examines two divergent understandings of Jewish law.

Yaakov Jaffe explains how Biblical grammar and parables come together in Amos to teach us about women's Talmud Torah.

Marc Michael Epstein explores the nature of animal motifs in medieval Jewish manuscripts.

Chaim Trachtman explores the relationship between moral instincts and rational thinking in Rabbinic Psychology.

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

The new book Reclaiming Dignity is taking the Anglo Jewish world by storm. Why? Emmanuel Bloch, who wrote his dissertation on the subject of tzeniut, argues that the work capitalizes on and extends a new, revolutionary halakhic and conceptual framework for tzeniut that has emerged only in recent years - one that offers a lens to the “soul of contemporary Jewish Orthodoxy.”

Leead Staller argues for a more nuanced approach to euthanasia in Halakha.

What does the Torah mean when it says to "guard your nefesh (soul)"? Lehrhaus editor David Fried reevaluates the common understanding of a Torah mandate for healthy living.