Jewish Articles

The New Modern Orthodox Humash at Last? A Review of the Rabbi Sacks Humash,” The Lehrhaus (Jan. 5, 2026).

Between Nusach and Niggun: The Chazzan’s Evolving Role,” Jewish Action (Fall 2025).

Kidnapped Choruses?Jewish Review of Books (Spring 2025).

Bringing the Bible’s Commentators to Life,” The Lehrhaus (Feb. 3, 2025).

Why Can’t Selihot Be More Like Kinot?The Lehrhaus (Oct. 8, 2024).

Where Does the Oral Torah Come From? And Can It Change?The Jewish Press (Oct. 2, 2024).

Dr. Philip Birnbaum’s Forgotten Humash,” Hakirah Vol. 35 (Summer 2024).

Mourning a Miscarriage,” Tablet Magazine (June 7, 2024).

Leapsniffing through the Vimveil: Avram Davidson’s Fantastic Fiction,” Jewish Review of Books (Winter 2024).

Series on the history of the siddur, 18Forty

  1. Who Wrote the Siddur?” (July 24, 2023).
  2. Did All Jews Pray the Same in Ancient Times?” (July 30, 2023).
  3. The Siddur Has a Lot of Prayers. Where Did They Come From?” (August 6, 2023).
  4. How Did Modernity Change Jewish Prayer?” (August 13, 2023).

Passover’s Rupture and Reconstruction,” The Lehrhaus (Apr. 3, 2023).

When Meir Kahane’s Father Translated the Torah,” Seforim Blog (Mar. 13, 2023).

Series on the Origins of the Oral Torah, 18Forty

  1. What Are the Origins of the Oral Torah?” (Nov. 3, 2022).
  2. Divinity and Humanity: What the Jewish Sages Thought About the Oral Torah” (Nov. 10, 2022).
  3. Why the Confusion? On Disputes in the Oral Torah” (Nov. 17, 2022).
  4. The Reform Movement Challenged the Oral Torah. How Did Orthodox Rabbis Respond?” (Nov. 24, 2022).
  5. The History of Halacha, From the Torah to Today” (Dec. 1, 2022).

Prayerful Poetry: A Translators’ Battle that Spanned the Atlantic,” The Lehrhaus (Oct. 13, 2022).

From King James to Koren,” Jewish Review of Books (Fall 2022).

Was the Sotah Meant to be Innocent?The Lehrhaus (June 9, 2022).

What Did the Beit Hamikdash Look Like?Jewish Action (Summer 2022).

Why a High Holidays prayer book is still going strong after 70 years,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency (August 31, 2021).

Shomron Kol Titein: Let the Silent Sisters Speak and be Consoled,” The Lehrhaus (July 14, 2021).

Toward a More Pragmatic Redemption: The Practical Zionism of Rabbi Yitzhak Yaakov Reines,” Conversations 37 (Spring 2021).

The Seder is Anything but Orderly,” The Lehrhaus (March 22, 2021).

Queen Esther Goes to Hollywood,” Moment Magazine (February 24, 2021).

A New Coffee-Table Humash is a Gateway to Academic Biblical Scholarship,” The Lehrhaus (January 5, 2021).

“Esther Goes to Hollywood: An American Midrash About a Wicked Anti-Semite, a Wise King, and Love Everlasting,” in Esther in America, Stuart W. Halpern, ed. (Maggid Press, 2020).

I’m going to miss singing in synagogue this year. What does that say about how we pray?” (op-ed), Jewish Telegraphic Agency (September 16, 2020).

Confronting God on Tishah Be-Av in Yehudah ha-Levi’s Yom Akhpi Hikhbadti,” The Lehrhaus (July 27, 2020).

Think Passover Guides Are Getting Stricter? Think Again,” The Lehrhaus (April 2, 2020).

The Story of the Synagogue Chumash,” Jewish Action (Spring 2020).

Yes, We Needed Another Modern Orthodox Prayer Book: A Review of the RCA Siddur,” The Lehrhaus (September 8, 2019).

How the Haggadah Text Changed Over the Centuries,” The Forward (April 18, 2019).

The Torah’s Final Promise is not a Covenant,” 929 English (March 28, 2019).

What Did Moses and Aaron Do Wrong?” 929 English (January 21, 2019).

The Life and Death of Moses’ Staff,” The Lehrhaus (January 17, 2019).

Move Over Artscroll: Here’s the New Modern Orthodox Chumash,” The Forward (September 28, 2018).

Revealed Yet Concealed: The Meaning of Aseret ha-Dibrot,” The Lehrhaus (July 23, 2018).

A Call for a New Modern Orthodox Humash,” The Lehrhaus (June 5, 2017).

A Science Like Any Other? Classical Legal Formalism in the Halakhic Jurisprudence of Rabbis Isaac Jacob Reines and Moses Avigdor Amiel,” The Journal of Law and Religion (March 2013).

Beacon of Renewal: The Educational Philosophy of the Lida Yeshiva in the Context of Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines’ Approach to Zionism,” Modern Judaism (May 2009).

Jewish Education and the Value of Truth,” Kol Hamevaser II:3 (December 2008).

Practical Zionism: R. Yitshak Yaakov Reines and the Beginnings of Mizrachi,” Kol Hamevaser I:8 (May 2008).

Ethics and Truth: Samuel David Luzzatto’s Critique of Maimonides,” Kol Hamevaser I:7 (April 2008).

A Torah U-Madda Approach to Historical Inquiry,” Kol Hamevaser I:5 (February 2008).