Min haMuvhar

Book Review: Shemot in Context: A Scientific and Kabbalistic Commentary of Exodus by Rabbi Elia Benamozegh

Since its founding in 2020, The Habura and its affiliated Da’at Press have distinguished themselves by producing original scholarship and translations that reflect the classical Geonic and Andalusian worldview. Committed to the highest values of Jewish tradition and scholarship, they make many previously obscure and inaccessible works available to the wider English-reading public.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's Views on Orthodoxy in Israel

On Friday, September 27, 1935, the Boston Jewish Advocate published an extensive interview with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who had recently returned to Boston following a four-month stay in Palestine. In what is arguably the most comprehensive articulation of his early Zionism, Rabbi Soloveitchik set forth in this interview his perspective on the role of Orthodoxy in Erets Yisrael.

Did You Hear the One about the Sephardic Boy Who Walks into This Orthodox Yeshiva?

For the achievement of a moderate and observant next Jewish generation, there will need to be a synthesis of all the best qualities and approaches of like-minded approaches, from Modern Orthodox to Sephardic and beyond, creating a Jewish lifestyle that is neither extremely stringent or oppressive nor exceedingly indifferent to religious observance. I hope our religious leaders are up to the task.

JEWISH AND MUSLIM MEETING

On Wednesday night January 14, 2026, a group of Board members of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals met with a group of Board members of the Peace Islands Institute, a Turkish Muslim organization. Rabbi Jospeph Potasnik, Executive Director of the New York Board of Rabbis, also participated in this gathering.  The mentor and spiritual guide of Peace Islands Institute was the late Fethullah Gulen, a remarkable Muslim thinker who fostered respectful relations among all human beings.