Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship

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Education

What Motivates Us? On Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

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?

Dr.

Deborah Uchill Miller

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The Seder as a (Children’s) Literature Festival

Prof. Rabbi

Wendy Zierler

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The Religious Value of Biblical Criticism: My Modern Orthodox Journey

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.

Rabbi

Noam Shapiro

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The Book of Jonah: God’s Didactic Lesson on Repentance

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?

Prof.

Yitzhak (Itzik) Peleg

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Children Should Be Taught the Myth that Torah Is from Sinai

Prof. Rabbi

Yossi Turner

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Conflict? What Conflict? Religious Tradition and Biblical Criticism

Prof.

Benjamin D. Sommer

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Text and Context: Torah and Historical Truth

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.

Prof.

B. Barry Levy

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On Becoming a Critical Torah Scholar

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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The Psychological Mechanisms that Protect Unreasonable Faith Claims

Prof.

Solomon Schimmel

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Why Now? Toward a Sociology of Knowledge Analysis of TheTorah.com

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

Prof.

Chaim I. Waxman

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Afflicting the Soul: A Day When Even Children Must Fast

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

Benyamim Tsedaka

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Embracing Academic Torah Study: Modern Orthodoxy’s Challenge

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.

Dr.

Steven Bayme

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A Precariously Fragile Torah

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

Prof.

Steven Fraade

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Biblical Authority: A Jewish Pluralistic View

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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An Honest Discussion with High School Students

Rabbi

Lee Buckman

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Can Orthodox Education Survive Biblical Criticism?

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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My Encounter with the Firmament

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.

Oren Fass M.D.

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“Who Wrote the Bible?” Challenged My Conservative Jewish Education

A single semester in college led to a crisis of faith and identity.

Lisa Jacobs

God Doesn’t Come Down to Earth Lower than Ten

“The heavens are the heavens for YHWH, and the earth was given to humankind.” — Psalm 115:16. Reflections on the 10-year anniversary of TheTorah.com.

Rabbi

David D. Steinberg

A Campus Rabbi Comes to Terms with Biblical Criticism

After years of yeshiva education and even Orthodox semicha, encountering biblical criticism was a shock to my system. However, my initial fear and disorientation gave way to a new bottom-line understanding of Torah, and it has become part of the message that I use to inspire my students on campus.

Rabbi

Daniel Levine