June 19, 2025

Unpacking the Iggerot: One Daf to Rule Them All

Can one make a siyyum on a single page from the Talmud? In our final installment of this season’s “Unpacking the Iggerot,” Moshe Kurtz analyzes R. Moshe Feinstein’s remarkably flexible approach to what can qualify for such a celebration and the values that informed his noteworthy responsum.
June 5, 2025

Unpacking the Iggerot: What’s in a Name?

May observant Jews call their children by non-Jewish names? What even is the proper delineation between a Jewish and a non-Jewish name? Moshe Kurtz explores how R. Moshe Feinstein’s approach to these questions gets at the heart of how he understood the definition of Jewish identity.
May 22, 2025

Unpacking the Iggerot: Brooklyn Eruv Battles

In our sequel to the Manhattan eruvin controversy, Moshe Kurtz explores the battle for Brooklyn eruvin, with a particular focus on the fraught exchange between Rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Menashe Klein. He also explores to what degree poskim were willing to incorporate societal factors into their otherwise technical halakhic debate.
May 13, 2025

RESPONSE: The Statistics of Pesak

In this response to some recent columns in our “Unpacking the Iggerot” series Benjamin Folkinshteyn questions the use of certain statistical data in determining halakhic realities as presented in R. Moshe Feinstein’s Iggerot Moshe.