The Four R’s: An Orthodox Educational Framework for Engaging with Biblical Criticism

Thanks in part to several new publications, portions of the Orthodox world have been engaging with modern biblical scholarship in a more significant way than ever before. Gil Perl provides a four-step framework for how Jewish days schools might profitably teach many aspects of biblical criticism that do not conflict with our mesorah.

Orthodox Judaism and the Impossibility of Biblical Criticism

Michah Gottlieb reflects on the recent discussion on biblical scholarship and its implications for Orthodox Jews, in light of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's writings. 

Must Creativity and Rigor be Either/Or?

In his review of Michael Hattin’s commentaries on the books of Joshua and Judges, Francis Nataf explores how greater collaboration between creative Tanakh teachers could help reduce the number of overly speculative readings.

Dancing with the Text: The Rabbinic Use of Midrashic Allegory

Malka Simkovich explores how Chazal approached our sacred texts in their midrashic allegories and how this issue continues to effect our approach to the torah today.

Tanakh, Chapter by Chapter

Susan Jablow on reading Tanakh through the eyes of a ba'alat teshuva

The Tension that is Tanakh

Yaakov Beasley looks at Hayyim Angel's scholarship and evaluates it as an exemplar of Modern Orthodox Bible study.

Azariah de Rossi’s Fascination with the Septuagint

What inspired Azariah de Rossi to take a work that cut against the grain of rabbinic views of the Septuagint and make it accessible to his Hebrew-reading fellow Jews?

Hendiadys in the Pre-Shofar Acrostic Prayer: An Introduction to an Overlooked Principle of Biblical...

In unpacking the meaning of a tricky verse from Eikhah that we say as part of the Shofar service on Rosh Hashanah, Mitchell First introduces us to the literary principle called hendiadys, which can help us understand various phrases throughout Tanakh.

Peshat and Beyond: How the Hasidic Masters Read the Torah

Batya Hefter uses the case of Isaac to illuminate how hasidic masters read the Bible.

Get Your Hashkafa Out of My Chumash!

Yaakov Jaffe provides an ideological argument against including ideology in our Chumashim.