Rabbinic Literature

Why Not Covet?

Elchanan Samet — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Reasons for the tenth commandment (found in this week's Torah portion): practical, psychological, moral, spiritual.

When Have "Most of the Rains Passed"?

Yair Goldreich — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Analyzing the climatic factors that help determine the date of Tu Bishvat.

Creaming the Competition

Elli Fischer — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Ruling Haagen Dazs ice cream to be non-kosher, the Israeli chief rabbinate misconstrues Moshe Feinstein's position and once again demonstrates its contempt for Diaspora Judaism.

Disjecta Membra

Benjamin Balint — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Not for nothing was the Cairo Genizah called "the Living Sea Scrolls": its discoverers revolutionized the study of Mediterranean Jewish life at the very moment that it was drawing to a close.

A Separate Peace

Tamar Rotem — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

A Gur Hasid, who practices a strict sexual separation, will not walk with his wife on the street. He will not call her by name. To address her, he will knock on the table. Or hum.

The Wages of Criticism

Zev Eleff — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

The 18th-century scholar Aryeh Leib Ginsburg was a harsh critic of earlier halakhic authorities. Did they finally exact revenge on him? And, if so, who's been covering up the story?

Cancelling Conversion

Gil Student — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

While many Orthodox rabbis have become too willing to annul conversions, even the non-Orthodox world recognizes that there are some circumstances in which a conversion must be overturned.

Blurring the Issue

Hadassah Levy — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Blurring or removing photographs of women might be understandable in the ultra-Orthodox world, but it should have no place in Modern Orthodoxy.

Reb Shlomo, Superstar

Mary Jane Fine — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

If Fiddler on the Roof is about tradition, a new musical about Shlomo Carlebach is about breaking with tradition—even if that means, as in Carlebach's case, breaking one's father's heart.

Siren Songs

Shlomo Zuckier — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

"For your voice is sweet and your appearance pleasant" (Song of Songs 2:14). On the basis of this verse, Jewish law prohibits a man's listening to kol ishah, a woman's voice in song. Unlikely as it may seem, this prohibition has sparked a controversy that could shake the foundations of Israel's self-defense and self-definition.

The Original Kosher Jesus

Fred MacDowell — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

150 years ago, Rabbi Elias Soloweyczk published commentaries on Matthew and Mark, aimed not at rejecting the Gospels but showing their concordance with the Talmud.

Sad Sexual Obsessions

Eric H. Yoffie — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Does the Israeli rabbinate's increasing focus on gender issues have an unattractive psychological component?

Kol Ishah Reviewed

Yehuda Henkin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Thirty years ago, Saul Berman wrote an influential and relatively liberal interpretation of the kol ishah prohibition. But there has been an answer. (PDF)

Talking Heads

Nathan Lopes Cardozo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Is wearing a kippah all the time equivalent to not wearing it at all? Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells Limmud how his kippah has come between him and God.

Jerusalem's Ego and Id

Alex Joffe — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Biography is not the same as history. Biography charts the outer and inner life of a person—character, spirit, morality, emotion, perhaps even soul. History, by contrast, incorporates different narratives and pieces of evidence, seeks out new data, then rises above all the fragments with a synthesis.

Judaism on Steroids

Micah Stein — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Ryan Braun, the reigning MVP of baseball's National League, is having a rough offseason. On December 12, ESPN reported that Braun had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug (PED) after a league-mandated drug test revealed elevated levels of testosterone in his system.

Sha-bot

Gil Student — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Can a robot be a Shabbos goy? The question is not simple, but it is not without Talmudic precedent.

Three Talmudists Confront the Evil Urge

Shai Secunda, Amit Gevaryahu, Eva Kiesele, Raphael Magarik — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

A symposium on the psychological, historical, and rabbinic development of the yetzer hara picks up where Jewish Ideas Daily left off.

Indices, Plural

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The New York Times' recent report on a new index to the Talmud neglected to point out that this work stands in the shadow of a 16th-century index—one that, perhaps, changed the course of Jewish history.

The Afghanistan Genizah

Gil Shefler — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The scholarly world is abuzz over a cave filled with ancient scrolls that may be the most significant historical discovery in the Jewish world since that of the Cairo Genizah. (Hebrew report with video here.)