Bamidbar

For Parshat Naso, Lehrhaus editor Yosef Lindell compares three twentieth-century rereadings of the Sotah ritual that make the passage more palatable to modern audiences.

Ezra Sivan uncovers hidden meaning in what happened and didn't happen during the Israelites' journey in the wilderness.

Is Jewish stubbornness a stereotype or a source of pride? In the Torah, it appears as a criticism, but also as a veiled praise for the people of Israel’s unique power of commitment. Zach Truboff highlights this strength in an application of the words of the Piaseczner Rebbe to our current moment of crisis.

Drawing upon the teachings of the Piaseczner Rebbe, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and others, Yiscah Smith proposes a model for reimagining contemporary Jewish leadership on both the communal and personal levels.

In her winning Ateret Zvi essay, Leah Sarna explores two simultaneously true stories about pregnancy: it is at once a beautiful, incredible miracle, and also a demanding journey, both physically and mentally, that often feels more like a catastrophe. Studying the Torah's accounts of pregnancy in Tazria and Rivkah's life, Sarna offers a moving analysis of what it means to hear, tell, and live these stories.

Yisroel Ben-Porat grapples with whether the case of the pregnant Sotah has implications for the debates surrounding abortion.

Dan Ornstein examines the rabbinic interpretation of the phrase "ba-asher hu sham," and applies it to the current conflict in Israel.

What led the Rabbis of the Seder to present Laban as a more diabolical enemy of the Jews than Pharaoh? Erica Brown shows how Laban took advantage of Jacob's insecurities as he arrived empty-handed at Laban's home.

  Mark Glass I. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away. … Growing up, that’s how the gabba’im of my youth minyan would determine if...

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan comments on the story of Zelophehad and his daughters.