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Talmud


If I Forget Thee? If I Forget Thee?
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

As a recent seminar at New York's Mechon Hadar testified, throughout Jewish tradition, everyone—even the anti-Zionists—recognizes that the Land of Israel has more sanctity than any other place.  But what follows from that?
Buczacz by Way of Newark: On Literary Lives at the End Buczacz by Way of Newark: On Literary Lives at the End
Thursday, January 10, 2013 by Jeffrey Saks | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Philip Roth has bowed out gracefully from the literary world.  But for the great Hebrew writer S. Y. Agnon, retirement was never an option.
Gun Control and the Limits of Halakhah Gun Control and the Limits of Halakhah
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Rabbinic disputes on the proper regulation of dangerous dogs illustrate that reasonable people, who share Jewish values regarding violence and self-defense, can disagree about gun control.
“Touch not Mine Anointed Ones” “Touch not Mine Anointed Ones”
Friday, December 21, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Contemplating what occupies God all day, the Talmud declares that “during the last set of hours, God sits and teaches Torah to children who died untimely deaths.”
Where Did the Gaon Go? Where Did the Gaon Go?
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Eliyahu Stern's new book portrays the Vilna Gaon as Eastern Europe's Moses Mendelssohn.  But can the ascetic, who backed the persecution of Hasidim, seriously be associated with individualism and democracy?
Keep Calm and Carry On Keep Calm and Carry On
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 by Dov Lerner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Shabbat is designed to be a day of rest and communal prayer. But due to halakhic restrictions on their carrying items from one place to another, observant Jews can become prisoners in their own homes.  
Did Red Bull Stratos Break a Halakhic Barrier? Did Red Bull Stratos Break a Halakhic Barrier?
Friday, November 2, 2012 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Not long ago, much of the world watched as Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth in a record-setting free fall that broke the sound barrier.
A Jewish View of Hurricanes A Jewish View of Hurricanes
Thursday, November 1, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

With school closed, transportation suspended, and the local park off limits, I cast about for something other than “work” to fill the day.  My thoughts turned to the weather, and I asked myself whether Judaism has anything instructive to say about hurricanes.
Does Jacob Hate Esau? Does Jacob Hate Esau?
Monday, October 29, 2012 by Jerome A. Chanes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Jews have traditionally kept non-Jews at arm’s length.  The rabbinic approach to anti-Semitism may be summarized as Halakhah hi b’yadu’a she-Eisav sonei et Yaakov, “It is an established normative principle that Esau hates Jacob.” 
Is Judaism a Proselytizing Religion? Is Judaism a Proselytizing Religion?
Friday, October 19, 2012 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

When Mitt Romney became the Republican Presidential candidate, some of the media attention focused on his experience as a Mormon  missionary in France and asked, subtly or not so subtly, whether a member of a proselytizing religion could properly lead a pluralistic society.
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Editors' Picks
Elon’s Middle Way Jeremy Rosen, Algemeiner. Menachem Elon—Orthodox rabbi, Talmud scholar, author of the magisterial treatise Jewish Law—opposed enshrining religion in Israeli law.  Now he has died, and his legacy is threatened.
Saving Aramaic Ariel Sabar, Smithsonian. Aramaic, the language of the Talmud, is dying as a spoken language.  So, Cambridge professor Geoffrey Khan is racing from Tblisi to Chicago to document every dialect.
Move Over, Looney Tunes Samuel Thrope, Tablet. The artists at Studio G-dcast are making animated cartoons of talmudic discussions.  Are they expanding the audience for the Talmud or creating another excuse not to read?
Did Miriam Sing? Gil Student, Torah Musings. Because Miriam sang at the Red Sea, say some, it cannot be forbidden by halakhah for men to hear women’s voices in song.  But did Miriam really sing?
The Silent Yeshiva Deborah Fineblum Raub, JNS. Ma’aseh Nissim, Israel’s first yeshiva for the deaf, has not only tailored Talmud study to the needs of students who cannot hear, but also brought sign language into the ultra-Orthodox world.
Harold Bloom’s Divine Obsession David Mikics, Tablet. Literary critic Harold Bloom dismisses halakhic Judaism as a "fossil."  But, 20 years after his work The Book of J, the Bible continues to obsess him.
Finding Books Within Books Yitz Landes, Talmud Blog. Ancient Hebrew fragments that were used as bindings for Latin manuscripts are being rescued across Europe.  But they are not a European Genizah.
Musings on Metzitzah Natan Slifkin, Rationalist Judaism. If the practice of suctioning blood during circumcision was instituted on medical grounds and we now see that it has no medical benefit, why keep doing it?  Tradition.
A Stiff-Necked People Ehud Barak, Prospect. "Israelis are a stiff-necked people," admits Ehud Barak in a farewell to electoral politics.  But that is what it takes to survive in a tough neighborhood.
Whose Bible Is It Anyway? Lawrence Schiffman, LawrenceSchiffman.com. It has become received wisdom that the Bible was an open canon—incomplete—when the Dead Sea Scrolls were composed.  But that is a reflection of Christian theology.