April 10, 2025

Unpacking the Iggerot: Shabbat Timers and Hatzalah

Was R. Moshe Feinstein a posek with a predisposition to dispensing lenient halakhic rulings? Moshe Kurtz argues that by looking at a sampling of his landmark Shabbat responsa we may be left with a very different impression of how R. Feinstein approached the world of contemporary halakha.
April 7, 2025

REVIEW: Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New

Any new book by Marc Shapiro naturally elicits enthusiasm, given his role as one of Jewish Studies’ most erudite scholars. His most recent offering, “Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New: The Unique Vision of Rav Kook “ (Littman Library) demonstrates how Rav Kook’s theological vision might contribute to contemporary Jewish thought. Yoel Finkelman reviews….
April 3, 2025

PODCAST: The COVID Seder

With Passover around the corner our minds are on the many preparations required to join our families around the Seder Table—and yet, who can forget the events of five years ago, when so many of us were isolated, locked-down, sheltering in place during that COVID Pesach of 2020. We’re pleased to share this episode of Moshe Kurtz’s “Shu”t First, Ask Questions Later” podcast, examining the COVID Zoom Seder controversy. Kurtz is joined by Yehuda Halpert, who takes us back to the pandemic halakhic literature, identifies important topics that the Jewish world wrestled with during those unprecedented days, and shows how those questions are still resonant for Jewish practice in 2025.
April 1, 2025

Rav Kook at Hebrew U

On this day 100 years ago, the Hebrew University was formally inaugurated on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The event opened with an invocation delivered by Rav Kook. His courageous message minced no words about his true feelings regarding the Hebrew University and its place in the life of a revitalized Jewish yishuv in the Land of Israel. Revisit Shnayer Z. Leiman’s presentation of that speech in our “From the Pages of Tradition” column (Fall 1994).