Timely Thoughts

Dr. Eddie Reichman, an ER doctor on the front lines of fighting Coronavirus, and an expert in the history of halakhah and medicine, shares a unique perspective on history of combatting plagues in the Jewish tradition.

Yisroel Ben-Porat grapples with whether the case of the pregnant Sotah has implications for the debates surrounding abortion.

Man’s actions—even those that seem fleeting and insignificant—can have an impact, positive or negative. Oren Oppenheim explores themes of u-Netaneh Tokef

Amitai Bin-Nun provides a fresh and intriguing perspective on the story of the Golden Calf by reading it in light of the Talmudic passage in Menahot detailing an encounter between Moses and R. Akiba on Mt. Sinai where God is tying crowns to the letters of the Torah scroll.

Outside the Land of Israel, we add an extra day to several holidays. Michael Kurin wonders: why not on Hanukkah?

Chaim Davis shares reflections based on his family’s (and his) close relationship with Rabbi Steinsaltz.

Ayelet Wenger offers a creative, intertextual reading of the story of Rabbi Akiva and the Wolf on the Temple Mount.

With the Yamim Noraim approaching, Avinoam Stillman analyzes Ḥavvayah, “experience,” in the thought of A.D. Gordon.

What led Rav Steinsaltz to inaugurate a yeshiva in the Soviet House of Sciences on February 22, 1989? In honor of R. Steinzlatz's sheloshim, Yehiel Poupko, a first-hand witness, offers a glimpse into the inner world of his mentor.

Historian Henry Abramson, who is currently releasing a series of video lectures contextualizing Israeli history and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, asks hard questions about how to understand the post-October 7th world.