Timely Thoughts

Ezra Sivan asks: Where is the justice in the tenth plague?

  The Lehrhaus Editors As 2025 comes to a close, the Lehrhaus team is proud to feature some highlights from our contributions this past year. Since...

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

In this essay, Michael Kurin analyzes the book of Esther in the context of the Second Temple and the diaspora.

Richard Hidary's reflection commemorating the passing of Yaakov Elman, ob"m.

Man’s actions—even those that seem fleeting and insignificant—can have an impact, positive or negative. Oren Oppenheim explores themes of u-Netaneh Tokef

Given the duration of the pandemic, should we suffice with waiting to return to normal, or are there hard-fought lesssons we can reintroduce even once the pandemic passes? Lehrhaus Consulting Editor and Director of Education at Sefaria, Sara Wolkenfeld, uses our recent experiences to gain new perspective on what tefilla, minyan and shul are really all about.

Chana Chava Ford explains what Sukkot might teach us about real religious change.

What theological language can we use to describe our current pandemic moment? In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Jeremy Brown takes scope of the ancient and modern notions of plague theodicy and reviews some ideas from the 2021 National Jewish Book Award Winner Torah in a Time of Plague.

"Who Knows" seems to have become a recurring question for so many of us. Erica Brown shares personal and biblical reflections on the meaning of this phrase for the age of coronavirus.