Judaism “A beautiful bit of hardware, it requires deed first and only then contemplation” Author Drew Kaplan Date 18 January 2016 You don’t have to be much of a theologian to see how different tefillin...
Talmud “This interpretation has absolutely no basis in the simple reading of text, and Rabbi Akiva’s exegetical excess infuriates Rabbi Yishmael” Author Drew Kaplan Date 17 January 2016 We do not know much about Nahum Ish Gamzu’s exegetical style except for the...
Sex, Talmud “Of primary concern is the question of what type of relationship is meant by the words ‘who will have me for a day?'” Author Drew Kaplan Date 17 January 2016 …within the Bavli itself, the statements of Rav and Rav Nahman—”who will have me...
Alcoholic Drinks, America “People have known since the Stone Age that sugary liquids, given time, have a salutary tendency to ferment, transforming themselves into something like beer or wine” Author Drew Kaplan Date 15 January 2016 People have known since the Stone Age that sugary liquids, given time, have a...
Sex, University “Are there ways to indicate you’re into it without having to say yes over and over again?” Author Drew Kaplan Date 14 January 2016 Of course, part of the teaching is all about context. What do you actually...
Jews in America “On the surface, it might appear that Heschel’s project and the work of Saul Lieberman had little in common” Author Drew Kaplan Date 14 January 2016 Though he received a classic yeshiva education, he later earned a doctorate at the...
America, Jews in America “Jewish Americans have a halakhic obligation to support a wise Syrian refugee immigration policy, but the specifics of what that would be?” Author Drew Kaplan Date 13 January 2016 Jewish Americans have a halakhic obligation to support a wise policy, but the specifics...
Writing “Those…who write about religion are doomed to live with the knowledge that we can describe everything about it…except for that core feeling…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 13 January 2016 Those of us who write about religion are doomed to live with the knowledge...
America “Prohibition didn’t seem frivolous at the time…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 12 January 2016 Prohibition didn’t seem frivolous at the time—if the comparison to abolitionism seems bizarre today,...
Writing “No contemporary writer known to me has written as searchingly and complicatedly about God and the ghost of God, and with such rich mixtures of feeling, such brazen anguish and play” Author Drew Kaplan Date 12 January 2016 No contemporary writer known to me has written as searchingly and complicatedly about God...