Observance
B’har-B’hukotai: Walk This Way
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 by Torah Talk with Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
What does it mean to "walk" in God's laws? (Click here for source sheet.) Download
The Covenantal Thought of David HartmanThursday, February 21, 2013 by Ari Ackerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
By treating the covenant between God and the Jewish people as a partnership, David Hartman found room for autonomy alongside halakhic observance.
The Turning of the Torah TideTuesday, December 4, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“Torah Judaism today retains more of its youth than at any time since the Haskalah.” Historian Marc Shapiro recently made this remark. Can he possibly be correct?
Max Lilienthal’s Aborted ReturnWednesday, October 31, 2012 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In Bruce L. Ruben’s new biography Max Lilienthal: The Making of the American Rabbinate, about one of the pioneers of the American Reform movement, I was surprised to learn that Lilienthal almost made a second trip to Tsarist Russia.
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.
Return to FuldaTuesday, September 11, 2012 by Kenneth R. Weinstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Once my son Harry’s bar mitzvah teacher told him he was ready to read Torah and Haftarah fluently anywhere in the world, Harry decided that after his bar mitzvah in Washington, D.C. he would have a second bar mitzvah in Fulda, Germany.
Yeshiva RevolutionFriday, September 7, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Shaul Stampfer, one of Israel's foremost experts on Eastern European Jewry, is the most unlikely of iconoclasts. A thin, quiet, unassuming man, he gives the impression that he would have been happy as a simple melamed (elementary school teacher) in the shtetls he describes.
Spinoza in ShtreimelsTuesday, September 4, 2012 by Carlos Fraenkel | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Philosophy professor Carlos Fraenkel wrote that “the cultural relativism that often underlies Western multicultural agendas [is] a much greater obstacle to a culture of debate than religion.” Today, in an exclusive preview from the Jewish Review of Books, Fraenkel relates how his theory fared among a group of Hasidim.
Shavuot: The Stopping PointFriday, May 25, 2012 by Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
There is always something going on in the Jewish festival calendar. From the fast of the 10th of Tevet through Hanukkah right around to the next fast of the 10th of Tevet on December 23rd, it's hard to go more than four or five weeks in a row without finding some special day to be observed.
Independence DayThursday, April 26, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Every spring, within a single week, Israel commemorates Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha'atzma'ut. These days revisit the core drama of the modern Jewish experience. They are also among the most controversial in the Israeli calendar.
Editors' Picks
Court Jews Dov S. Zakheim, Jewish Ideas and Ideals. "To what extent does halakhah permit a Jewish official to sidestep normative rabbinic law and tradition?"
Mornings at the Stanton Street Shul Emily Katz, H-Net. Jonathan Boyarin’s book on a summer spent as part of the minyan at the historic synagogue is about Judaism, Jewishness, the changing Lower East Side—and Boyarin himself.
Europe’s New Religion Dov Maimon, Nadia Ellis, Jewish People Policy Institute. As human rights becomes Europe’s reigning code of ethics, Jews across the continent face attacks by the secular establishment on ritual circumcision. (PDF)
Holding Fast to Tisha b'Av Zvi Leshem, Times of Israel. At what stage can we conclude that the Exile is over, and that we no longer have to torment ourselves with fasting?
"Rabbi, do we Jews believe in reincarnation?" Hyim Shafner, Institute for Jewish Ideas. "Knowing full well that much of Kabbalah, philosophy, and even Midrash does accept the notion of reincarnation, I tried to muster a definitive 'No!'"
We Failed Zuckerberg Dana Evan Kaplan, Forward. A Reform rabbi argues that his movement's pluralistic theology is to blame for the detachment of young Jews from their faith.
Never on Saturday Tevi Troy, Washington Jewish Week. "During the Katrina disaster, President Bush declared to his senior staff that there would be no weekend . . . As a Sabbath observer, I wondered what to do."
The Hermeneutics of Hasidism Zackary Sholem Berger, Tablet. Although writers who reject the Hasidic world capture public attention, the really interesting literature comes from writers who struggle with Hasidism but love it too much to leave.
There's a Key in My Challah! Jeffrey Saks, Torah Musings. Does the post-Passover tradition known as "shliss challah" derive from symbolic readings of the season's texts—or, rather, is it a Christian symbol of Jesus rising in the dough?
P.O.R.K. Leah Stern, Times of Israel. "Our children have suddenly become ultra-Orthodox. What do we do?" P.O.R.K. to the rescue!