Tanakh

David Bashevkin articulates a religious educator’s perspective on why people become religious

In honor of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’s 70th birthday, Ari Lamm explores his legacy as a biblical commentator.

Sarah Rindner asks what the Book of Leviticus, Leonard Cohen and the Liberty Bell all have in common.

Ezra Sivan challenges our understanding of the fifth commandment and all of Sefer Devarim.

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?

Yisroel Ben-Porat analyzes a Midrash offering non-misogynistic takes on the original sin.

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

Lehrhaus Founding and Consulting Editor Elli Fischer on why R. Mendel of Rimanov is said to have spoken about the man every Shabbat for 22 consecutive years, and why reciting parshat ha-man the Tuesday before Parshat Beshalah might not be a segulah for parnasa, but R. Mendel's exhortation to be content with our lot.

Jon Kelsen uncovers a deeper rabbinic meaning to the blood needed to "passover" the Israelites.

Elinatan Kupferberg argues that the boundaries between Torah and Madda have blurred and evolved throughout Jewish intellectual history. This erudite analysis upends our assumptions about Torah u-Madda and breathtakingly reimagines its past, present, and future.