Davening—It’s a Trip!
To daven in the morning is to take a trip with a variety of sites along the way. Why experience it this way? I’ve found, after decades of wanting to focus on what...
Category: Issue 10.1: Derekh Ha-Limmud
Issue 10.1 Symposium
Kol Hamevaser is excited to announce that this year, we are launching a new section featuring a symposium on issues pertinent to the Yeshiva University undergraduate community. Contributors to these symposiums will include Yeshiva...
Issue 10.1 Derekh Ha-Limmud
In the newly published Toras HoRav volume titled Halakhic Morality, Rabbi Soloveitchik distinguishes between two aspects of Jewish life: a derekh ha-hayyim and signon ha-hayyim. The derekh ha-hayyim, way of life, is universal. As...
Orthodoxy, Unorthodoxy, and Paradox: Review of “Faith Shattered and Restored: Judaism in the Postmodern Age,” by Rav Shagar
Like so many American Orthodox Jews, I had scarcely heard of Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, or “Rav Shagar,” until relatively recently, despite having spent two years learning in a hesder yeshiva. In fact, I...
An Interview with Rabbi Saul Berman on “The Status of Women in Halakhic Judaism”: 44 years Later
This year we are launching a new section containing either interviews or essays revisiting articles from the post-World War II era that were groundbreaking and formative for our community. Kol Hamevaser writers will examine...
Conflict and Paradox: Balancing Emotion, Intellect, and Neo-Hassidut
The following is a response to the Volume 10, Issue 1 Symposium. Click here for the symposium prompt and links to other responses. When one approaches a piece of the Rav’s writings,...
The Rav Between Halakhic Men and Lachrymose Lubavitchers
The following is a response to the Volume 10, Issue 1 Symposium. Click here for the symposium prompt and links to other responses. Rabbi Soloveitchik’s telling of the well-known anecdote of his father,...
Blowing and Bawling
The following is a response to the Volume 10, Issue 1 Symposium. Click here for the symposium prompt and links to other responses. Halakhic Man was not intended as an exhaustive account of...
The Mishnah Berurah’s Treatment of Kabbalistic Sources
Prior to the emergence of the Zohar in the early fourteenth century, the halakhic system that guided the normative behavior of practicing Jews remained closed, allowing for modification or additions only through terminology and methodology...
Midrash and Intertextuality: Stringing like Beads the Words of Torah
In Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, Ben Azzai is described as stringing the words of Torah together like beads, from the Torah to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings. Sitting and interpreting, with...
Of Concepts and Precision: Understanding Torat Brisk
During the lifetime of Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik (1853-1918), a revolution occurred in the world of Talmud Torah. Despite the well known aversion of the leaders of this movement to publish, what has been termed...
Talmud Torah and Biblical Scholarship
The question of Orthodox responses to modern Biblical scholarship is not new. As early as 1960, Tradition published an article surveying the Orthodox attitudes thus far. The question remains relevant for a number of...
Why and How We Study Mahshava
In the fall of 2011, I was asked to teach a two-semester course in mahshava to all first year semikha students in Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). Previously, the curriculum for ordination at RIETS...
Letter from the Editor
In the newly published Toras HoRav volume titled Halakhic Morality, Rabbi Soloveitchik distinguishes between two aspects of Jewish life: a derekh ha-hayyim and signon ha-hayyim. The derekh ha-hayyim, way of life, is universal. As...
