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Sharona Margolin Halickman

Jun 18, 2025, 3:27 PM

The Fruits of Peace

In Parshat Shlach (Bamidbar 13:20) the scouts were instructed to bring back souvenirs from their visit to the Land of Israel: “...You shall strengthen yourselves (vehitchazaktem), and you shall take some of the fruit of the Land.” Those days were...

Adam Louis-Klein

Jun 15, 2025, 11:33 PM

Before Orthodoxy

Jewish tradition has always been more plural, symbolic, and visionary than its later codifiers acknowledged. It’s time we remembered. Contemporary Jewish discourse too often treats tradition as a closed, fixed system—something to be defended by repeating formulas rather than re-examining...

Judy Rosenstark

Jun 13, 2025, 2:50 PM

Milchemet Mitzva, Even for a Groom

"At the command of the Lord they encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord through Moses." (Bamidbar 9:23) In the Torah portion of this...

Jun 12, 2025, 1:49 PM

Book review – Milhemet Mitzvah: Volume 2

Rabbi Sender Axelbaum runs the Connections Foundation in Israel. Its mission is to bridge the gap between secular and religious communities, and part of that is getting the two groups to communicate and understand each other. They live in...

Reuven Chaim Klein

Jun 8, 2025, 2:10 PM

Terumah + Tenufah = Back-and-forth + Up-and-down

A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry from my friend and noted author Rabbi Shmuel Botnick (whose eloquent words grace Mishpacha Magazine week by week). My esteemed interlocuter wanted to know about the difference between the words terumah and tenufah. Both of these...

Adam Louis-Klein

Jun 6, 2025, 5:54 PM

Religious Zionism and its Discontents

It’s hard to overstate how incoherent the ideology of Israel’s religious right has become. Figures like Smotrich and Ben Gvir claim to stand for “tradition”—but what they promote is a bizarre fusion of biblical nationalism, medieval halachic formalism, and...

Jun 6, 2025, 2:55 PM

The Divine Census and Quantum Collapse: Lessons in Identity and Potential

As we read the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar), we find ourselves immersed in the Torah’s counting of the Jewish people and all twelve tribes. The Shalo Hakodosh (Rabbi Isaiah (Yeshayahu) Halevi Horowitz) points out that this book is named...

Jun 4, 2025, 4:00 PM

Waves and waves of love: An Orthodox ally at Pride

With Free Parent Hugs, at Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park, 2024. (courtesy)

I didn't create the tension between Jewish law and the modern LGBTQ community, and I can't resolve it, but I will do all I can to support those navigating it

Reuven Chaim Klein

Jun 1, 2025, 7:09 PM

Healing the Sullied – Hebrew Synonyms for ‘dirty’

The Talmud (Shabbat 146a, Yevamot 103b, Avodah Zarah 26b) relates that when the Jews stood upon Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, something miraculous and extraordinary happened: All the Jews were cured of the zuhamah that had infected mankind ever since the primordial snake injected Eve...

May 28, 2025, 10:21 PM

On Becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah

Last week was particularly sad in Israel and in the Diaspora: Two soldiers, Sgt. Yosef Yehuda Chirak and Sgt. Danilo Mocanu, were killed in Gaza, in an operation that seems increasingly futile. On Thursday evening, a young couple, Yaron...

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