With the arrival of Elul, Yitzchak Blau focuses our attention on two noteworthy new works on repentance: R. Michael Rosensweig “Mimini Mikhael” and R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s “Return and Renewal.”  By bringing these volumes into conversation with each other he highlights one strong parallel and a number of intriguing contrasts between the works and their authors, offering us insights to the spiritual challenges that lie ahead for us all in the coming month.

R. Soloveitchik challenged us to discover ways that a “new Jewish world view” might be formulated from the sources of halakha. In reviewing Tzvi Goldstein’s “Halakhic Worldviews” (Mosaica Press), Elisha Friedman finds an excellent template for how we might turn our attention to this daunting task.