Talmudic Readings

Yitzchak Blau reviews Jeffrey Rubenstein’s The Land of Truth, Talmud Tales, Timeless Teachings.

Miriam Gedwiser explores the time Rabban Yohanan ben Zakai's students sought to comfort their teacher.

Elinatan Kupferberg argues that the boundaries between Torah and Madda have blurred and evolved throughout Jewish intellectual history. This erudite analysis upends our assumptions about Torah u-Madda and breathtakingly reimagines its past, present, and future.

Rami Reiner examines how our understanding of a Talmudic passage could change if we allow for the possibility of it being a comedy.

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.

How can repeated tropes in rabbinic aggada help us to understand the rabbis' values--and how they related to Tanakh? Moshe Isaacson explores a variety of examples, suggesting that the question has only begun to be examined.

Tehila Wenger offers a short story on loss, eternity, and olive trees .

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

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

Lawrence Kaplan responds to Eli Putterman's essay on Reish Laqish and sexuality.