Ketuvim

Purim - Armed with feminist and political theory, Don Seeman probes the depths of Malbim's Esther commentary.

Tzvi Sinensky contends that the rabbinic and feminist readings of Vashti are not diametrically opposed.

Malka Simkovich hunts for Jewish texts in some unlikely places.

In time for Tisha Be-Av, Marc Eichenbaum offers a meaningful new reading of Eikha using modern psychological concepts like grief, trauma, and narrative construction.

Tamar Weissman shows how the Druze minority in Israel remarkably resemble the biblical Kenites.

Mitchell First reviews Yehuda Landy's Purim and the Persian Empire.

Tzvi Sinensky suggests that the Megillah itself confronts the question of Purim's legitimacy.

How did Esther shape the way Puritans saw the ideal role of the contemporary woman? Cotton Mather, a major player in the Salem Witch Trials, had much to say in his Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. Stuart Halpern of Yeshiva University explains, wishing us all a Puritan Purim.

Natan Oliff explores the evolving role of truth throughout Tanakh and later Jewish history.

Lawrence Kaplan responds to AJ Berkovitz’s article on the many conflicting interpretations of a passage in Midrash Tehillim, highlighting two different approaches advanced by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.