Timely Thoughts

Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe comments on the poetry, context, and tension of Yehuda Ha-Levi's "Tziyon Halo Tishali" Kinnah.

Eliyahu Freedman compares hospital chaplains to the Kohanim.

Is true forgiveness possible? Michael Kurin explores the doubts raised by prominent twentieth century philosophers and considers how Jewish tradition offers a radically different conception of repentance and forgiveness, one that enables people to alter their reality vis-à-vis God and one another.

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.

Aton Holzer explores the role of free will and its limits in the Yom Kippur liturgy.

How did the Talmud look at plagues? Miriam Reisler offers a close reading of a key halakhic and narrative section of Bava Kama.

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

Just in advance of the shloshim for David Ellenson, the former president of Hebrew Union College, Jonathan D. Sarna pays tribute to a man whose life, work, and friendships spanned the Jewish denominational divide.

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.

Yosef Bronstein explores the thought of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe.