Teachers & Students
“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.”
Reform of Tradition, Tradition of ReformWednesday, November 7, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Max Lilienthal’s life provides a lens through which we watch American Judaism, Reform Judaism in particular, struggle with the consequences of its own idiosyncratic condition.
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.
The Jewish Left, between History and RevelationMonday, June 11, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The association of Jews with leftist ideas and movements has been a fixture of Western politics for the past 150 years. But is the relationship logical and necessary, or is it historical and contingent?
Sending Mein Kampf Back to SchoolTuesday, May 22, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Important literature can't be kept under wraps forever. A case in point is Mein Kampf. The German state of Bavaria, which holds the German copyright, has blocked the book's publication within Hitler's homeland.
Abuse Among the Orthodox: Bad News, Good NewsMonday, May 21, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
First, the bad news: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse occurs in Orthodox Jewish communities. Next, the worse news: Two recent New York Times stories are just the latest piece of evidence that Orthodox communities are often in denial and worse.
Make Yourself a TeacherTuesday, March 27, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The meanings of "Torah" are inexhaustible, but its plainest sense is "teaching." It does not exist apart from being communicated. That circulation between human beings, and between humans and God, both gives Torah life and teaches us that Torah itself teaches life.
Eating Your ValuesFriday, November 4, 2011 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The many Jewish laws regarding food—how it gets from the ground and into our mouths in a kosher manner—are central to Jewish life. But what ethical framework underlies the system of kashrut? Maimonides' justifications for kashrut range from avoiding cruelty to animals and eschewing the idolatrous practices of antiquity to considerations of health.
Who Owns Maimonides?Wednesday, October 5, 2011 by Joshua Halberstam | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Abraham Joshua Heschel once suggested that if one didn't know that "Maimonides" was a person, one would assume it was the name of a university. Heschel was referring to the monumental breadth and influence of the 12th-century philosopher's work.
Rosh Hashanah with the Chief RabbiTuesday, September 20, 2011 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Ten years ago, the first day of Rosh Hashanah—the two-day Jewish New Year—fell on September 18. That was one week after September 11, 2001, when almost 3,000 people were killed by Muslim terrorists. On that Rosh Hashanah, rabbis did not lack for sermon topics.
Editors' Picks
Teaching Like Strauss Lee Trepanier, Imaginative Conservative. Countering the scientization of the academy, Leo Strauss defended philosophy as the route to understanding "the dignity of the mind," and thereby "the true ground of the dignity of man."
Whither Judaic Studies Departments? Bruce Kesler, New Criterion. In campus atmospheres often hostile to Israel, it's understandable that Jewish Studies departments would be defensive. But they must do more to justify themselves and to fulfill their mission.
Who Killed Hebrew in America? Cynthia Ozick, New Republic. Who could have foretold an eruption of Hebrew-generative genius on the American continent—which, having no offspring, then came to nothing?
"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.
Talmud and Technology Alan Jacobs, Atlantic. Although the challenges posed by the Internet are serious, Jews have long disputed how to deal with new technology—and faced similar dilemmas with the printing press.
True Torah, True Science Seth Kadish, Rationalist Judaiam. Two strikingly different medieval paradigms show that when facing apparent conflicts between science and Torah, the worst possible solution is to sanitize the former or censor the latter.
Dragoman Eric Ormsby, Wall Street Journal. Though Bernard Lewis is firmly opposed to historical relativists, he is keenly aware of the sheer slipperiness of historical terrain.
Remembering Too Well? Joshua Hammerman, Times of Israel. The importance of fostering a Jewish identity that values "God of Sinai" over "God of Auschwitz."
Trailing the Rabbis' Breadcrumbs Judith Shulevitz, Tablet. What is man? He who is capable of searching inside himself. What does he search for? Some dark or foreign matter that he has put there himself. With what does he search? The light of God, which is also in himself.