Trajectories of Tradition: King David on Skin Lesions and Tent Impurities
AJ Berkovitz traces the reception history of a Midrash Tehillim that seems to equate the reading of Psalms with Torah study, offering a fascinating case study of how tradition evolves.
Fearless Leadership:Nehemiah son of Hacaliah Learns from Moses and Aaron
In this second-place prize-winning essay for Hadar’s annual Ateret Zvi contest, Nehemia Polen approaches a vexing episode in the Torah through new lens: what if Moses and Aaron were denied entry to the Land of Israel not because of what they did when obtaining water from the rock but because of where they escaped to right before?
Aspects of My Father’s Philosophy of Jewish History
This essay by Aaron Zeitlin—originally published in Yiddish in 1967 and translated here into English by Daniel Kraft—explores Aaron’s father Hillel Zeitlin’s approach to anti-semitism by way of the Book of Jonah.
In Six Barleys were Wrapped an Enduring Legacy
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan examines the significance of the six barleys that Boaz gives Ruth in light of the story of Rachel, Leah, and the duda'im.
The Christian Monks Who Saved Jewish History
Malka Simkovich hunts for Jewish texts in some unlikely places.
Three Sonnets
Jeffrey Burghauser's three poems draw on the biblical and rabbinic imagination.
Ha-Kalir’s Kinot – Poetry and Theological Narrative
Zvi Grumet suggests that when read in sequence, the kinot of R. Elazar Ha-Kalir—often seen as the ones most difficult to understand—offer a powerful theological narrative from despair to hope.
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