Rabbinic Creativity and the Waters that would Consume the World

Levi Morrow explores how the Rabbis use creative exegesis to save the world from drowning in a flood

“I Would Soar to the Sphere of Heaven”: Aleph and “I” in a Tishah...

In advance of Tisha Be-Av, Tzvi Novick annotates and interprets the kinnah of a’adeh ad hug shamayim by the master poet R. Eleazar ha-Kalir, unlocking its complex acrostic to determine who its speaker is meant to be.

Playing Dreidel with Kafka and Rabbi Nahman

Joey Rosenfeld takes Kafka and Rav Nahman for a spin, on their timely drey-ing of the tops!

The Directional Shaking of the Lulav: Bible, Mysticism, and Religious Polemics

Yaakov Jaffe traces the origins and evolution of the custom to shake the lulav in different directions.

Was God Angry at Sarah?

Ben Greenfield God isn’t angry with Sarah, when she laughs at the idea of birthing a child in her old age (Gen. 18:12-15). God is...

Catching up to Israel: A Yom Ha’atzmaut Reflection on the Post-Pesah Parshah Gap

Shmuel Hain comments on the leap year parshah-gap between Israel and the Diaspora.

The Myth of the Judaic Puritans

Did the English Puritans of New England emulate Jewish prayers and practices? Yisroel Benporat investigates the common claim and its complexities--as well as what the myth itself tells us about Jews in America.

Signing Up for a COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

May one opt to participate in a potentially dangerous vaccine trial? This theoretical halakhic question has suddenly become all-too-urgent. Sharon Galper Grossman and Shamai Grossman explore.

Mikra Bikkurim at the Seder: A View from Deuteronomy

Tzvi Sinensky suggests that we can best understand the Haggadah against the backdrop of Sefer Devarim.

Three Questions after October 7

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.