Author Description

This volume of Ḥakirah begins with the final installment of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zẓ”l’s, “Lectures on Genesis.” Here, the Rav explains that the concept of yemot ha-Mashiaḥ consists of the merger of the natural scientific order with the moral order. In delving into the connection between aggadah and halakhah he clarifies the Kabbalistic concept of the three Sabbath meals. The second essay in the Jewish Thought section, titled “A Light unto the Nation: R. Meir Simḥah of Dvinsk’s Approach to Nationhood and Zionism in Meshekh Ḥokhmah,” sheds light on the views of a gadol from the previous generation who had much in common with the Rav in the depth and breadth of his religious thought and in some of the positions he took with regard to confronting the modern world. The third essay in the section, “Ignoring the Writing on the Wall: Semiology vs. Metaphysics,” discusses the issue of creation and science from a unique perspective, incorporating the thought of a scholar who lived both in the world of the beit midrash and the university. Our Talmud Torah section features two articles disputing claims made by Orthodox academic scholars that challenge fundamentals of our faith. In “Of Dogma & Dissimulation: Marc Shapiro’s Analysis of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised,” the author refutes the suggestion that Rambam was insincere in stating three of the ikkarei emunah. In “The Exodus and Historical Truth: A Critique of Ani Maamin by Joshua Berman and the Late Date Exodus Theory,” the author rejects the claim that the traditional dating of Israel’s Exodus cannot be reconciled with historic data. Other articles in this section feature acute textual analyses of traditional sources. “Emotion and Intent in Prayer” studies Rambam’s exact choice of words in Mishneh Torah when defining the religious experience of prayer as well as other mitzvot. “Untangling the Mystery of Women’s Hair Covering in Talmudic Passages” analyzes the individual Talmudic passages in Ba