Timely Thoughts

In this timely article, Wendy Zierler examines how Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai's "Beterem" can provide readers with the inspiration they need leading up to the Days of Awe

David Curwin explores the evidence that Jacob may have made a fatal mistake in not conquering Canaan upon returning.

As we reflect on ever-present evil by reading Parashat Zakhor this Shabbat amidst the shocking human tragedy of the war in Ukraine, Zach Truboff brings to light a derasha by Rav Moshe Avigdor Amiel written a century ago that speaks to this very moment.

YU President Ari Berman's opening address, comparing YU to a Sukkah! Shlomo Zuckier captures this historic moment in his notes.

Chaim Davis shares reflections based on his family’s (and his) close relationship with Rabbi Steinsaltz.

At the height of the cholera epidemic in 1831, Hatam Sofer delivered a timely sermon on a perplexing midrash to Parshat Ki Tavo. The take-home, suggests Elli Fischer, is all-too familiar in the COVID era.

Yael Unterman reflects on the Yemima Method, the psycho-spiritual approach little-known in America but quickly growing in popularity in Israel.

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?

Eliyahu Freedman compares hospital chaplains to the Kohanim.

Yosef Lindell argues that the Haggadah focuses on the story of the Exodus rather than on the laws of the paschal sacrifice as a way of looking forward towards the future redemption.