The Confounding Origins of the Term "Hebrew"
The word is freighted with both theological and national meaning, which points not just to a semantic tension but to a permanent tension within Jewish identity itself.
Oct. 11 2021 12:01AM
The Heretic Whose Teachings the Talmud Preserved and Transmitted
Elisha ben Avuyah became a vehicle for exploring the agonizing conundrums the rabbis were too honest to ignore but too pious to articulate.
Aug. 9 2019 12:01AM
The Buried, Raging Sermons of the Warsaw Ghetto Rabbi
Sermons from the Years of Rage, 1939-1942, hidden during the war and now released in a new edition, is a rabbinic work unlike any since the destruction of the First Temple.
April 5 2018 12:01AM
The Difference between a Biblical Scholar and a Philosopher
The former seeks answers; the latter seeks the questions that can help situate human beings existentially and rationally within the universe.
Jan. 23 2017 12:01AM