The Jewish Thought Magazine of the Yeshiva University Student Body
Freedom
The first documented Jewish child to grapple with the nature of freedom did not do so through the luxuries of the “question-and-answer” style that typify the Seder night. The child, Moshe, is born into...
Contemporary American Jews often hear of an “intermarriage crisis,” with reportedly half of Jews marrying outside of their faith. [i] [ii] [iii] The precedent for the Jewish reaction to this phenomenon is rooted in biblical scripture....
Jews of all backgrounds are familiar with the phrase “le-shanah ha-ba’ah bi-Yerushalayim,” “Next Year in Jerusalem.”[i] It makes two appearances annually in Jewish liturgy: at the conclusion of the Passover Seder and at the...
Many speak of Pesach as the festival of freedom, but the idea of “freedom” is rather abstract. Like “love,” “happiness” and “goodness,” “freedom” is an axiologically-loaded word whose import we intuitively apprehend yet whose...
Reviewed Book: Dr. Erica Brown, Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anarchy in the Book of Numbers (Jerusalem, Israel: Maggid Books, 2013) Leadership. Unfortunately, there currently seems to be a lack of this...
The institution of shemittah, in contrast with the way it has in fact been applied is, to say the least, unusual. Comprising two basic elements—shemittat karka, an obligation to let the land lay fallow,...
On a chilly October evening we rallied outside the home of Albert Srour yelling, “Albert Srour: give your wife a get!” and “Albert Srour: stop the abuse!” ORA (The Organization for the Resolution of...
Sherri Mandell is the author of the book The Blessing of a Broken Heart and co-director of the Koby Mandell foundation, which supports families bereaved through terror and other tragedies. She undertook both of...
Reviewed Book: Chava Willig Levy, A Life Not with Standing (North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2013)[i] In the spring of 1955, researchers announced that extensive clinical trials testing the effectiveness of Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio...
