Education

Hammurabi’s Laws and other ancient Near Eastern legal collections were sanctioned by the gods, but crafted by kings. How and why did the laws in the Torah become God’s laws?

The Bible often provides explicit motivations for adhering to its laws, raising the question: How do these motivations align with contemporary psychological theories of moral reasoning?

I went from dismissing biblical criticism to embracing its truth, and having to rebuild my religious identity. Five aspects of my religious life have been profoundly enhanced.

The book begins with Jonah running away and ends with YHWH rebuking the prophet, but the book is unclear as to whether Jonah ever repents. Why?

The Torah describes God’s fashioning the firmament (רקיע) on the second day of creation. This piece of the universe, however, doesn’t actually exist—a problem obfuscated in my yeshiva education.

Moses and R. Judah HaNasi implore: “I would be most grateful if you would maintain the Torah after me.”

The Israelite-Samaritan interpretation of “you should afflict your souls” (ועניתם את נפשתיכם) and our experience of Yom Kippur.

The study of biblical criticism cuts to the very meaning of the value system of Modern Orthodoxy, i.e. forging a distinctive synthesis of modern culture with traditional values.

An analysis of why the approach taken by TheTorah.com has found such a large audience among the Orthodox at this time.

Historical-critical and text-critical approaches to the Torah have a strong precedent in classical rabbinic literature. Yet Orthodox Jewish communities today pointedly resist these methods. It is time that critical thinking about the Torah be embraced within our educational systems.