Chabon, Safran Foer, and the Great Jewish American Novel

Ari Hoffman explores the expansive visions of Jewish peoplehood embedded in two major, recently published novels

Peshat and Beyond: How the Hasidic Masters Read the Torah

Batya Hefter uses the case of Isaac to illuminate how hasidic masters read the Bible.

The OU Paper: Three Lenses

Elli Fischer contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Permission to Forbid: New Gezeirot in the History of Halakhah

Are today's rabbis allowed to initiate new prohibitions? Aryeh Klapper analyzes a responsum on the issue of halakhic innovation regarding new technologies.

The Power of Secrets: Jacob, Laban, and the Passover Haggadah

What led the Rabbis of the Seder to present Laban as a more diabolical enemy of the Jews than Pharaoh? Erica Brown shows how Laban took advantage of Jacob's insecurities as he arrived empty-handed at Laban's home.

The Philosopher and the Mystic?

David Fried reviews Diana Lobel's Moses and Abraham Maimonides: Encountering the Divine, which argues that the categorization of Moses Maimonides as an Aristotelian philosopher and his son Abraham as a Sufi mystic is an oversimplification.

Remembering Professor Louis Feldman, z”l

Ari Lamm writes in tribute to the late Louis Feldman, examining his scholarship in light of personal experience.

Of Warriors and Wolves

In these difficult times for Israel, Aharon Frazer of Alon Shvut is thinking about the fundamental sanctity of human life and the long game. Can war and weapons really take us toward the messianic age?

Esther the Queen, Hester Prynne, and The Scarlet Letter as Biblical Commentary

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

Endless Exploration: Judaism’s Only “Principle of Faith”

Hasdai Crescas criticized Maimonides for counting belief as a Mitzvah, arguing that we have no control over what we believe. Dovid Campbell explores a surprisingly common defense of Maimonides that places his views closer to those of Crescas than we might have initially imagined.