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Talmud

Can the Torah Be a Moral Authority in Modern Times?

The Torah is often used to highlight various ethical values while its many ethically problematic commandments are ignored or explained away. Is there a way to treat the Torah as a moral authority while honestly confronting the ethical issues it raises?

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Shankbone and Egg: How They Became Symbols on the Seder Plate

The Talmud requires having two unspecified cooked dishes to be eaten as part of the Passover meal. How did this requirement develop into the custom of placing two particular symbolic foods, the shankbone and the egg, on the seder plate?

Dr.

Joshua Kulp

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39 Melachot of Shabbat: What Is the Function of This List?

In halakha, the 39 melachot of Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 functions as a comprehensive list of primary categories of forbidden labor. A closer look at the list in context, however, reveals that it was composed and added as a supplement, to clarify a detail in the previous mishnah.

Prof. Rabbi

Judith Hauptman

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Shemurah Matzah: Guarded from Water and for a Mitzvah

Shemurah matzah, “guarded matzah,” has two meanings: The matzah is guarded so that it does not become chametz, and the matzah is made with the express intent that it be used to fulfill the mitzvah. This latter idea, however, does not appear in any of the early (Tannaitic or Amoraic) layers of the Talmud, but only in the editorial (Stammaitic) layer. This article demonstrates how this notion entered rabbinic literature.[1]

Dr.

Joshua Kulp

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The Moral Quandary of Lulav Ha-Gazul

The Torah and Bavli vs. the Prophets and Yerushalmi

Prof.

Jonathan Ben-Dov

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Can Orthodox Education Survive Biblical Criticism?

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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