January 6, 2026

Moses the Independent Partner

As we begin reading the Book of Exodus our minds turn to the man Moses and his job as a prophet conveying God’s message with precision. Zvi Grumet considers how that role sometimes clashes with Moses’ position as a teacher par excellence. While Moses is identified as the greatest of prophets, the appellation ascribed to him in Rabbinic tradition is Rabbeinu, our teacher—how can these roles be reconciled?
January 4, 2026

REVIEW: The Jewish Experience

Mark Wildes founded the Manhattan Jewish Experience as a Modern Orthodox kiruv organization. With his recent book, “The Jewish Experience” (Maggid Books) he seeks to share his approach with a new generation of rabbis and seekers. Does Wildes’ style of experiential outreach hold up after two decades? Steven Gotlib reviews the book in light of broader trends in outreach and religious apologetics.
January 1, 2026

The BEST: Caps for Sale

Ilana Kurshan convinces us that the children’s classic “Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina is among “The BEST”: Its message delivered at countless bedtimes resonates with our tradition from the Ben Ish Hai to the “mimetic tradition,” and reminds us that the experience of reading to our kids is a sacred mimicry of our parents having read to us, and back through the chain of mesora.
December 30, 2025

REVIEW: The Lions of Zion

Natan Slifkin’s “The Lions of Zion,” unlike many of his earlier writings, eschews internal Jewish polemics and aims to both show how the natural world of the Torah demonstrates the Jewish People’s connection to the Land of Israel and to refute attacks on Israel which use alleged Israeli “sins” against nature. Menachem Kellner calls it “highly engaging, often amusing, deeply interesting, and truly important.”