By: Jonathan Ziring

The history of religion is filled with strife, divisiveness and schism. Judaism has been no exception, whether it be the Perushim and the Tsedukim, or the Orthodox and Reform, Judaism has split into factions with distinct philosophies and perspectives....

By: Tzivia Traube

In March of 2008, journalist Gershom Gorenberg, in an article for the New York Times Magazine, recounted the story of Sharon, an Israeli secular woman, who had to prove she was Jewish before she would be allowed to marry....

By: The Kol Hamevaser Editorial Board

As anyone following recent events within Yeshiva University knows, the panel of homosexual students who spoke about their experiences in the Orthodox community on December 22 stirred an extensive debate on the topic of homosexuality and whether the panel,...

By: Periel Shapiro

In the 18th century, Hasidism burst forth in Eastern Europe, gaining a broad and diverse following in a Jewish community experiencing devastating socioeconomic decline and great intellectual disparity. Responding to these conditions, the Hasidic Movement ...

By: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

This article is a translation from the Yiddish of the fourth section of R. Soloveitchik’s yortzayt shi’ur entitled “A Yid iz Geglichn tzu a Seyfer Toyre” – “A Jew is Compared to a Torah Scroll.” [Previous sections...

By: Raphy Rosen

On December 22, 2009, YU’s Tolerance Club and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work held a panel entitled “Being Gay in the Orthodox World,” which drew passionate reactions from both students and YU faculty alike. A panel like this one ca...

By: Staff

An interview with Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm about the current state and future of Modern Orthodoxy...

By: Alex Ozar

“Anthropology” in the title is meant, not in its more standard sense of the study of human cultures and the like, but in its philosophical sense of a conception of the nature of man. Our goal is to delineate and explore various Jewish concepti...

By: Suri Halpern

A letter to the editor about Yo'atzos halacha...

By: Estee Goldschmidt

One of the things that sets Chabad apart from other sectors of Judaism is its ideology of shelihut implanted by the late Rebbe, R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, that drives Lubavitch Hasidim to travel around the world and build communities in places where m...

By: Chaim Cohen

We all want to be perfect.  We want to be perfect individuals, and we want to form a perfect community, creating a perfect nation which will ultimately create a perfect world.  On an individual level, we want to be, in the words of the Mesillat ...

By: Yitzhak Bronstein

Ambivalence characterizes the feelings that I had last year towards the possibility of attending YU. Having just completed my first semester, the ambivalence remains. Allow me to explain myself....

By: Yehoshua Blumenkopf

Dear Editor, While reading the last edition of Kol Hamevaser [3,3 (December 2009)], I was distressed by certain authors’ tendencies towards subjectivism, which I judge to constitute a dangerous disdain for the truth, especially within a religious se...

By: Shlomo Zuckier

Is the enterprise of Academic Jewish Studies a worthwhile one? This issue of Kol Hamevaser deals with the interaction between this wide and varied field, with all its distinct branches, and the Orthodox Jew....

By: Shlomo Zuckier

Reviewed Book: Rabbi Yitzchak Blau, Fresh Fruit & Vintage Wine: The Ethics and Wisdom of the Aggada (Jersey City, N.J.: Ktav, 2009).   When most people think of a recently published sefer on Gemara, their thoughts immediately jump to different fo...

By: Yossi Steinberger

We live in a modern world of equal rights, and, as religious Jews, we have responded to the messages blowing in the wind.  Not surprisingly, as we explore possibilities for being more inclusive in our religious life, halakhic issues arise.  The ...

By: Mordechai Schichtman

Dear Editor, I found Eli Putterman’s article, “The Modern Orthodox Response to Orthopraxy” [Kol Hamevaser 3:2], very insightful and thought-provoking. While Mr. Putterman ends the essay without a clear solution to all the problems he rai...

By: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Editor’s Note: The following is a translation from the Yiddish of the third section of R. Soloveitchik’s yortzayt shi’ur entitled “A Yid iz Geglichn tzu a Seyfer Toyre” – “A Jew is Compared to a Torah Scroll.&rdqu...

By: Eli Putterman

The articles in this issue, understandably, take a positive attitude towards the rise of the academic study of Judaism and Jewish texts. After all, it is a cornerstone of Modern Orthodox thought that the search for truth constitutes a major religious valu...

By: Ori Kanefsky

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario. A student, let us call him Aaron, enrolls in a Bible course at Yeshiva College. In this particular section, the professor expects each student to come to class having read and having given considerable thought...