Editors’ Note: This month, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks turns 70 years old. In honor of this occasion we present this essay examining Rabbi Sacks’s contributions to the field of Biblical commentary. The first thing one notices about the biblical commentaries by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is the cover art. Comprising…

I read with interest Dr. Lawrence Kaplan’s insightful essay concerning the key role oral instruction plays in the thought of Moses Mendelssohn. I appreciate his complimentary words regarding my earlier piece concerning Mendelssohn’s notion of the Oral Law as living script, and find myself in agreement with key elements of…

Editors’ Introduction: The past year has been full of conversations, statements, and publications surrounding the topic of women’s roles in Orthodox Judaism. Among the many issues underlying this important and continued dialogue is how women experience their religious lives, and what will enable them to foster and sustain a relationship…

Editors’ Introduction: The past year has been full of conversations, statements, and publications surrounding the topic of women’s roles in Orthodox Judaism. Among the many issues underlying this important and continued dialogue is how women experience their religious lives, and what will enable them to foster and sustain a relationship…

Todd Berman Imagine sitting around the house with family and friends. It’s game night, and you pull out the latest and greatest game. To promote the wholesomeness of the evening, the game will have to be something with good values. It should not use profanity.It will promote healthy competition. …

Much time has been devoted to the so-called “tuition crisis.” School boards and administrators work tirelessly; local federations and national organizations like the Orthodox Union lobby, convene committees, and do fundraising; families hash out various scenarios over Shabbos tables all to solve the problem. …

Avraham (Rami) Reiner Translation: Elli Fischer In the spring of 2013, the organizers of the sixteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem decided to hold a special session called: “Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein: Thought, Talmudic Methodology, and Cultural Influence,” in honor of the Yeshivat Har Etzion Rosh Yeshiva turning eighty. This was fairly…

In March 1971, Torah Umesorah held the inaugural Brachos Bee for Orthodox day schools in New York. It was Rabbi Dovid Price’s idea. Four years earlier, the principal of Yeshiva of Prospect Park had concocted the blessing bee for his Brooklyn-based school. It had worked. The Prospect Park youngsters embraced…

Avodah Zarah 10b features a fascinating story about an obscure figure, Ketiah bar Shalom, situated in Caesar’s court. More than just a story about Roman-Jewish relations, we will see that it represents a rabbinic meditation on the nature of the part and the whole, on belonging and representation. קטיעה בר…