Humash

Avraham’s challenge to God’s planned destruction of Sodom raises the fundamental ethical problem of collective punishment. The resolution of this challenge, Sruli Fruchter explains, enables Avraham to realize God’s highest ideals and to confront the conflict between compassion for oppressors and consideration for their victims.

In an original analysis of one of the most famous stories in the Torah, Maier Becker calls into question many long-held assumptions about this week's parasha and proposes a new reading based on the interpretations of traditional exegetes.

Alex Ozar drills down on the point of the Akeidah, responding to Herzl Hefter and Tzvi Sinensky.

In this piece, Shimi Kaufman considers ways of interpreting the intentions surrounding the enjoyment of Shabbat.

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan explains what it means when the Torah says that Moses's burial site was hidden.

Sarah's conspicuous absence from the dramatic Akeidah narrative is the subject of both traditional and scholarly interpretation. Michael Wolff offers an approach through the lens of gender roles.

In Part II of his series on trop, William Gewirtz explains the principle of recursion and how it helps us interpret texts.

How do Moses Mendelssohn and Revelation jibe? Judah Kerbel offers some perspective.

  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...

Herzl Hefter provides critical perspective on a stream of Akeidah interpretation from Kierkegaard to the Rav