Timely Thoughts

Rav Moshe Feinstein does not praise the United States for not having fascists and communists, but for having a system of government that is particularly resistant to what came to be known as totalitarianism.

When we boil matters down to their essence, what is the underlying difference between a yeshivish and centrist Orthodox worldview? Tzvi Goldstein argues that it’s not Torah Umada, Zionism, or women’s roles; these are all symptomatic of a deeper debate about this world and the World to Come.

Ranana Dine explores the depictions of suffering in haggadot.

Yakov Nagen examines the opening chapters of Genesis to explore what God wanted from people for matan Torah.

Stephen Denker reconstructs Bert Katz's experience of Kristallnacht in Nentershausen.

Joshua Ladon reviews the Devash Jr. Book of Shemot.

Tzvi Sinensky explores the hidden world of Esther with the help of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A poem on parshat Korach by Zohar Atkins

Through an analysis of Hanukkah ads, Yael Buechler explains how Yiddish newspapers used the Old Country language to acculturate Jews to the New Country.

Michael Broyde offers a new theory for why halakhah obligates women in some time-bound positive mitzvot and exempts them from others.