Nine Measures
Tehila Wenger offers a short story on loss, eternity, and olive trees .
Voices from Outside the Cave: Women and the Story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai
Kate Rozansky explores the life of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai through the prism of the women in his life.
The Fourth Chapter of Avot as an extended reflection on Epicurean Philosophy
In the spirit of Hanukkah, Yaakov Jaffe offers an intriguing thesis tying together a series of Mishnayot in the fourth chapter of Pirkei Avot: they are all responding to various aspects of Epicurean philosophy.
Between Angels and (Wo)Men: The Talmudic Approach to Sexuality
In their latest for the Lehrhaus, Aryeh and Penina Dienstag study Talmudic narratives that balance the tension between sexual asceticism and pleasure through an overlooked literary motif: angels.
“Miracles Do Not Happen at Every Hour”: Purim Drinking as anti-Christian Polemic
Eliav Grossman examines the Talmud's account of drinking on Purim, reading it as directed at Christian texts and traditions.
If Your Wife Is Short, Bend Down and Hear Her Whisper: Rereading Tanur shel...
Miriam Gedwiser
Sometimes, returning to a familiar text uncovers something new. In this essay, I hope to reexamine the story of the Oven of Akhnai...
Mind Blown: Shofar as Divine Encounter Beyond the Limits of Human Comprehension
Aton Holzer explores the inscrutability of the Mitzvah of Shofar.
The Nazir and the Priest
Yoni Nouriel examines an episode in the Talmud where Shimon Ha-Tzadik describes his encounter with an impure Nazir.
Can we Transform the World? An Analysis of the Talmudic Messiah
Atara Cohen considers the theological implications of the Talmud’s surprising majority opinion as to how the Messiah will come.
Gilgamesh and the Rabbis: Knowledge and its Price from Uruk to the Beit Midrash
What do Adam, Enkidu, and Reish Lakish all have in common? Eli Putterman explores.