Talmud and Halakhah

Shlomo Zuckier explores the nature of Yom Kippur and its relationship to atonement.

Marc B. Shapiro reviews a new edited volume by Yoram Hazony, Gil Student, and Alex Sztuden that offers a traditional defense of revelation in light of modern biblical criticism.

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

Yaakov Jaffe responds to David Stein's earlier call to revamp the standard day school Talmud curriculum.

The secular calendar has its leap day on Feb. 29. On the Jewish calendar, our leap day is 30 Adar I, since Adar in a non-leap year always has 29 days. Yaakov Taubes explores all of the Halakhot pertaining to this unique day.

Aton Holzer explores the inscrutability of the Mitzvah of Shofar.

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

Shlomo Zuckier explores some surprising connections between the Talmud and the field of behavioral economics.

With a novel reading of Josephus and Gittin, Shana Schwartz proposes that the tragedy of the second hurban and the mystery of subsequent Jewish survival may be understood by reference to the physiological knowledge available in classical antiquity.

The epikorus and the min apparently represent two different kinds of heretic in traditional Jewish literature. Elisha Price traces the evolving meaning of each term in Hazal and medieval writings, clarifying the differences between the major genres of Jewish heresy and helping illuminate for us why they matter.