Website Update – And Full Archive
Welcome to Kolhamevaser.com! Please excuse our appearance while we continue updating our website. You can access our full archive of PDFs from Volumes 1-11 from the link in the menu at the top of the page.
All posts by kolhamevaser
Editor’s Thoughts: Nature and Its Discontents
By: Daniel Shlian The word “nature” is rich with differing meanings. When a chemist describes something as “natural,” a purveyor of organic food products might disagree[i]. One person’s proclivity in any number of realms might be described as unnatural by those who do not share them, but is perfectly natural to those who do. Absent…
The Natural and Spiritual Light: The Duality of Hanukkah
By: Mindy Schwartz Idolatry, the single greatest temptation of the ancient Jew, holds the attention of the biblical narrative with a choking grip until the destruction of the first Temple. Rambam explains this obsession as a gradual evolution.[i] When man first bowed to the luminary bodies he did so as an expression of service to…
For it is not in Heaven…or is it?: On the Halakhot and Hashkafot of Space Travel
By: Judy LesermanEdited By: Chaya Apfel On the twentieth of July 1969, after four days of travel, two men set foot on the moon for the first time in history. Hundreds of millions heard Commander Neil Armstrong’s famous words “…one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” as he traversed the final…
The Jewish Response to the Theory of Evolution
By: Ari Adler The question of how to proceed when science and Torah seem to be in conflict is not new among rabbinic figures. Over the centuries, various strategies have been used to provide what is, in the views of each individual rabbinic authority, the proper approach when this occurs, whether it be reconciliation, dismissal…
Bricks and Stones: On Man’s Subdual of Nature
By: Matt Lubin Like so many of the stories that make up the first sections of Bereshit, the Torah’s account of the Babylonian bricklayers, builders of the “Tower of Babel,” is extraordinarily cryptic. Interpretations abound, and one would not be hard-pressed to find many varied explanations of this strange story throughout Jewish literature, some with…
Art, Torah, and Nature: An Interview with Rabbi Ozer Glickman
Rabbi Ozer Glickman is a Rosh Yeshivah at RIETS and teaches about the intersection of Halakhah and business at Sy Syms School of Business. Over the last few months, Rabbi Glickman and I have chatted about a number of topics. Through these conversations, his deep knowledge of art history, the philosophy of art and a wide range of literature became increasingly apparent. It…
Full Index Online
We have completed an index of all articles in our archive, available at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/khm-article-index . The index is sortable and searchable by author, title, and issue. In addition, we have begun to incorporate a tag database for our articles.