Shemot
- Netziv's Introduction to Exodus
January 28, 2009 - Redemption-from, Redemption-toward: Ramban's Introduction to Sefer Shemot
January 7, 2010 - Two Perspectives on the Value of Perspective
December 24, 2010 - Should One Flee from Threatening Metaphors?
January 4, 2013 - Ordinary Heroism?
January 10, 2015 - Understanding the Work and Words of Shemot
January 2, 2016 - Ordinary Heroism?
January 20, 2017 - From the 2018 Women's Winter Break Beit Midrash: Issues of Kavod
January 5, 2018 - Understanding the Work and Words of Shemot
December 28, 2018 - Mosheh Rabbeinu on Campus
January 17, 2020 - What Is the Moral of This Dvar Torah?
January 8, 2021 - Was Moses A (Good or Bad) Jew When He Killed the Egyptian?
December 22, 2021 - Was Mosheh Rabbeinu an American Religious Zionist?
January 5, 2024
Vaeira
- Faith in Revelation is Compatible with Humility about Interpretation
December 30, 2010 - The Natural Affinity of Rationalism and Mysticism
January 28, 2009 - If a Frog Jumped into a Fiery Furnace, Would You Jump Too?
January 13, 2010 - Did Jews Own Slaves in Egypt?
January 20, 2012 - Should Pshat Affect Psak, or: Does the Groom Count for the Minyan at His Wedding?
January 11, 2013 - Does Judaism Believe in Demons?
January 1, 2014 - If a Frog Jumped into a Fiery Furnace, Would You Jump Too?
January 12, 2015 - How and Why We Must Teach Our Children Well
January 9, 2016 - Do True Lovers Have Free Will? A Philosophic Pilpul
January 27, 2017 - Rubashkin and the Fall of the Jedi
January 12, 2018 - Pharaoh's Free Will, and Ours
January 4, 2019 - Kavod HaBeriyot (Human Dignity): Psak and Pedagogy
January 24, 2020 - What Kind of Freedom Does the Torah Value?
January 15, 2021 - The Walder Case and Suicide: Lessons Learned and Not Learned
December 31, 2021 - SoBFLaBMoBHoLDoF and Free Will
January 12, 2024
Bo
- Bo Akeidat Yitzchak
January 28, 2009 - When (Does) the Torah Make Empirical Claims? The Plague of Locusts and Biblical Proportions
January 22, 2010 - Reading Like Chazal: Why Mosheh Slapped Pharaoh
January 7, 2011 - In the current issue of the Jewish Week
January 27, 2012 - Spiritual Risk and Ethical Luck
January 20, 2013 - What is the Pshat of a Metaphorical Mitzvah?
January 1, 2014 - The Wonder of Wonders and Miracle of Miracles
January 24, 2015 - Spiritual Risk and Ethical Luck
January 16, 2016 - Women as Clergy
February 3, 2017 - Commandedness and Obligation: A Philosophic Pilpul/Excursion
January 19, 2018 - May You Cheer When Your Enemies Are Punished for Cheering When You Were Punished?
January 11, 2019 - On his lips, a word is singing, and the word is... cherut?
January 31, 2020 - The Halakhah of Equal Protection
January 22, 2021 - Walder's Books, Rav Tau's Books, and Me
January 7, 2022 - What does the Tzitz Eliezer say about the halakhic implications of surgery intended to change the sex of the patient?
January 27, 2023 - Every Soldier's Death Diminishes Me
January 19, 2024
Beshalach
- The Works of My Hands Are Drowning: A Case Study in Ideology and Interpretation
February 5, 2009 - Post-Noahide and Pre-Sinaitic Jewish Law: Which Mitzvot Were Given at Marah?
January 29, 2010 - Midrash as Retelling:The Case of Joseph's Bones
January 13, 2011 - Is Adolescence a Treatable Condition? Thoughts on Gap-Year Educational Models
February 3, 2012 - Does Midrash Blacken the Wicked and Whitewash the Righteous?
January 27, 2013 - Rationalism, Empiricism, and Religion
January 10, 2014 - And the Number One MO Meme Is...
January 31, 2015 - The Delicate Balance of Halakhic Decision
January 23, 2016 - Devorah as Shofetet: Exception or Paradigm?
February 10, 2017 - Who Gets a Vote in Orthodoxy?
January 26, 2018 - Rationalism, Empiricism, and Religion
January 18, 2019 - Amalek: The Risk of Rhetoric
February 7, 2020 - What Does the Manna Teach Us About Economic Inequality?
January 29, 2021 - THE DONUTS OF EDEN: BAKED, FRIED, OR JUST RAINED FROM HEAVEN?
January 13, 2022 - What Happens after G-d Becomes King Forever?
February 3, 2023 - Amalek and Evil
January 26, 2024
Yitro
- Can G-d Command Us to Believe in Him?
February 11, 2009 - K'beyachol, or: Did Anyone Ever Really Believe that G-d Has Eagle Wings?
February 4, 2010 - The Linzer-Agudah Brain Death Controversy: A Case Study in Halakhic Methodology
January 21, 2011 - Did Yitro Arrive in Time for Revelation? The Relationship Between Chronological and Literary Order in Parshat Yitro
February 9, 2012 - Is There a Mitzvah to Prevent Genocide?
February 1, 2013 - Yitro - Stairway to Sinai?
January 17, 2014 - Art and Orthodoxy
February 7, 2015 - Sinai and Orthodox Authority
January 30, 2016 - Creativity and Avodat Hashem
February 17, 2017 - Teaching Hashkofoh
February 2, 2018 - Yitro and Amalek at the Border
January 25, 2019 - What Does G-d Think of Yitro's Advice?
February 14, 2020 - What Do Angels Look Like? And Other Questions About Halakhah's Understanding of Art
February 5, 2021 - What if Mosheh Rabbeinu Had a Reality TV Show?
January 21, 2022 - A Week Imitation
February 10, 2023 - If Bar Petoro’s Parents Were Dying in a Desert, and He Had Enough Water to Save One of Them
February 2, 2024
Mishpatim
- Crime and Punishment and Atonement
February 19, 2009 - (How) Should Halakhic Civil Law Be Revived?
February 10, 2010 - (When) Should One Not Follow a Halakhic Majority?
January 28, 2011 - Batei Din and the Factual Determination of Secular American Authorities 2012
February 15, 2012 - (When) Is Religious Coercion Justifiable?
February 8, 2013 - Ethics Beyond Commandedness?
January 24, 2014 - Keeping Heretics Safe and Out of Pits
February 14, 2015 - For Those Who Can't Handle the Truth
February 6, 2016 - Moral and Other Sevarot
February 24, 2017 - Charity vs. Security: A Jewish Analysis of a Moral Policy Question
February 9, 2018 - Is Marriage What Brings Us Together?
February 1, 2018 - How Did Chazal Interpret Torah Laws They Found Troubling?
February 21, 2020 - Chosenness and the Infinite Value of Each Human Being
February 12, 2021 - Does the Torah Permit Intra-Jewish Slavery?
January 28, 2022 - When Traditional Interpretations Seem Wrong and Even Irrational
February 9, 2024
Terumah
- A Case Study of Chassidic Bibilical Interpretation: Kedushat Levi on the Opening Verse of Parshat Terumah
February 26, 2009 - What Makes Government Legitimate? A Halakhic Reflection on the Arab Spring
February 4, 2011 - The Difference between Metaphor and Symbolism, with Specific Reference to the Mishkan
February 24, 2012 - Can Halakhic and non-Halakhic Jews Develop a Shared Spiritual Language?
February 15, 2013 - When 1000 Words Cannot Describe A Picture
February 21, 2015 - Immersion in Fire
February 13, 2016 - Some Kind of Blue? Tradition, Tekhelet, and the Rav
March 3, 2017 - Stop Thinking About This Dvar Torah!
February 16, 2018 - Social Justice, Egalitarianism, and Pluralism
February 28, 2020 - The Private History of a Psak That Failed
February 19, 2021 - Is the Mishkan a Symbol of Religious Equality? If Not, Can it Become One?
February 4, 2022 - The Rooster Prince
February 24, 2023 - Why A King Less Wise Than Solomon Would Not Have Built the Temple
February 16, 2024
Tetzaveh
- Two Categories of Halakhic Creativity
March 6, 2009 - Can Revenge Be a Moral Motive? Abravanel on Amalek
February 23, 2010 - Commandedness and Community: Matt Eisenfeld Memorial Essay
February 10, 2011 - Commandedness and Identity: Matt Eisenfeld Memorial Essay 5772
March 2, 2012 - Megillat Esther's Mussar for Modern Orthodoxy
February 22, 2013 - Why Does Being Commanded Matter?
February 28, 2015 - Why Does Being Commanded Matter?
February 20, 2016 - Purim, Anti-antisemitism, and Modern Orthodoxy
March 10, 2017 - 2018 Matt Eisenfeld Memorial Essay: Commandedness and Mental Disability
February 23, 2018 - On What Basis Does G-d Command? Matt Eisenfeld Memorial Essay 5780
March 6, 2020 - What If the Megillah Has Nothing to Teach Us? A Mostly Serious Dvar Torah
February 26, 2021 - The Beginning and End of the (Mishneh) Torah is Humanism
February 11, 2021 - Purim and the Ways of Peace
March 3, 2023 - Commendable Commandables and the Limits of Halakhah
February 23, 2024
Ki Tisa
- Is Taking a Direct Jewish Census Dangerous? Shadal on Superstition and Supernatural Causation
March 12, 2009 - Ki Tisa Rabbah Menachot
March 5, 2010 - Was the Mishkan a Work of Art? Thoughts from Rav Kuk, with a Nod to Plato
March 9, 2012 - Mosheh in Rabbi Akiva's Classroom, or: On the Inevitable Temporality of Law
March 1, 2013 - The Wages of Sin and the Reward of Disobedience
February 15, 2014 - Two Cheers for Tribalism
February 27, 2016 - Can We Judge a Psak Based on Its Consequences?
March 17, 2017 - One and a Half Cheers for Tribaism
March 2, 2018 - Was Making the Golden Calf a Violation of Halakhah?
February 22, 2019 - In Halakhic Emergencies, Break Glass and Then Read Directions Carefully
March 13, 2020 - Jorge Luis Borges' "Life of Moses": A Review
March 5, 2021 - Relevance and Reverence Revisited
February 17, 2022 - When the Law and the Good Diverge
March 10, 2023 - Was Making the Golden Calf a Violation of Halakhah?
March 1, 2024
Vayakhel
- When Is It Best to Specify the Law in Detail, and When Is It Best to Leave it General and Abstract?
March 12, 2010 - Should "Shabbesdik" be an Objective Halakhic Category?
February 25, 2011 - How to Read Like Chazal: The Five Pillars of Peirush and the Mishkan
March 8, 2013 - Our Faith and Our Facts
March 14, 2015 - Spirituality, Sexuality and the Science of Desire
March 5, 2016 - Who Gets to Decide What's "Shabbesdik?"
March 24, 2017 - Paradise Lost, Again and Again
March 9, 2018 - How to Read Like Chazal: The Five Pillars of Peirush and the Mishkan
March 1, 2019 - Does Mixed Donating Lead to Mixed Dancing?
February 25, 2019 - Tolerating Contradiction
March 17, 2023 - Lessons for Jewish Education from King Yehoash’s Religious Arc
March 8, 2024
Pekudei
- Pshat, Drash, SeKhel, Derekh Hashem: Rabbeinu Bechayei's Approach to Biblical Interpretation
March 20, 2009 - May Women Have their Hair Cut on Chol Hamoed
March 24, 2010 - What the Mishkan and the World Teach Us About Each Other
March 4, 2011 - Amalek and Anti-Semitism
March 18, 2011 - The Case of the Added Elders: A Midrashic Mystery Tour
March 12, 2016 - They Might Be Giants
March 8, 2019 - (How) Does Halakhah Take Economic and Other Inequalities into Account?
March 20, 2020 - How Does Halakhah Change as Technology Changes? Goses as an Illustrative Example
March 12, 2021 - The Mishkan and atoneMENt
March 4, 2022 - Mussar for Messianists
March 15 2024
