Timely Thoughts

Leead Staller argues for a more nuanced approach to euthanasia in Halakha.

Steven Gotlib review's Elliot Cosgrove's "For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today," which urges unity among American Jewry.

For Jennifer Raskas, the seder narrative reflects on the past and informs the future.

Contemporary physicians have been heroic in the battle against COVID-19, but what was it like to be one of a handful of Jewish doctors confronting the Bubonic Plague during the 17th-century in Italy? Prolific medical halakhist and historian Eddie Reichman takes a close look at the four Jewish graduates of the Padua medical school class of 1623.

In his latest for the Lehrhaus, Steven Gotlib reviews the recently published collection of essays, Strauss, Spinoza, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith, which tries to answer: is there a philosophical defense of Orthodoxy in the modern world?

The secular calendar has its leap day on Feb. 29. On the Jewish calendar, our leap day is 30 Adar I, since Adar in a non-leap year always has 29 days. Yaakov Taubes explores all of the Halakhot pertaining to this unique day.

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

In this poem, Julian Alper reminisces about the legacy of an old man who used to sit beside him in synagogue.

Yitzchak Blau and Michael Broyde respond to recent articles that have driven conversation.

Shlomo Zuckier's reflection commemorating the passing of Yaakov Elman, ob"m.