“Looking for a Havvayah” A Genealogy of “Experience” on the High Holy Days

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

Steely Dan and Rosh Hashanah

Ari Lamm offers a retrospective on the music of Steely Dan and its significance for Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein on What Makes America Great

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.

Netivot Shalom: A Mixed Blessing?

Those of us who feel deeply connected and indebted to Hasidism should ask ourselves a difficult and perhaps painful question: Is Netivot Shalom the sefer that we want to represent us to the rest of Am Yisrael?

Rav Hayyim and the Love of Lernen

In 1927, Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz wrote a poem, an ode to Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik of Brisk. Nati Helfgot provides the background and a translation.

Three in One: Creation, Exodus, and Equality

Ezra Sivan presents a new analysis of Shabbat and how it throws light on so much more in the Torah.

The Fox and the Chair

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

Rav Yehuda Amital and the Secret of Jewish Continuity

In commemoration of Rav Amital's seventh Yahrtzeit, Shlomo Zuckier shares Rav Amital's teachings on Jewish continuity, in Derasha form.

Bilam, God, and the Silent and Slanted Spaces

For Eve Grubin, Bilam's hidden messages is a lesson for the Torah and for life.

An Academic-Hasidic Love of Torah

Yakov Z. Mayer reflects on the life of a remarkable Hasidic academic.