Begin exploring
today’s 
biggest Jewish
questions…

×
  • Topics

    Most Popular Topics

    • American Yeshiva World
    • 18 Questions, 40 Mystics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Jewish Outreach
    • Israel & Diaspora
    • 18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers
    • Denominations

    View all

    All Topics

    • Mental Health
    • Israel at War
    • Prayer & Humanity
    • Zionism
    • Jewish Education
    • Romance & Commitment
    • Origins of Judaism
    • Books, Books, Books
    • Abuse in Our Community
    • Halacha
    • Wealth
    • Is Religion Rational?
    • Shabbos
    • Teshuva
    • Summer Unwind
    • Loss
    • Censorship
    • Agunah Crisis
    • Intergenerational Divergence
    • God
    • Why 1840?

    View all

  • Discover

    Podcasts

    Essays

    Guests

    Videos

    Swag Shop

    Popular for Discover

    • Elissa Felder & Sonia Hoffman: How the Jewish Burial Society Cares for the Dead
    • Shlomo Brody & Beth Popp: Demystifying Death and the End of Life
    • Michael Oren: ‘We are living in biblical times’
    • Micah Goodman: ‘I don’t want Gaza to become our Vietnam’

    View All Podcasts

    OTD: Leaving Religion

    Ayala Fader: How Do Haredi Jews Deal With Religious Doubt?

    18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers

    Jonathan Rosenblum: ‘Would you want to live in a country run by Haredim?’
  • Book Culture

    Book Joureys

    • How Do Morality And Values Guide Jewish Law?
    • ‘Anti-Zionism is an existential threat to the Jewish People’

    Shabbos Reads

    • Books, Books, Books
    • I Read This Over Shabbos on X

    FEATURED BOOK

    How Do Morality And Values Guide Jewish Law?

    FEATURED BOOK

    ‘Anti-Zionism is an existential threat to the Jewish People’
  • About

    About us

    Who we are

    Submissions

    Contact us

    Donate

    WHY 18
    Forty

    The year 1840 was a turning point: the Industrial Revolution peaked, the Damascus Affair sparked Jewish unity, and modernity opened new paths for enlightenment. Mystics called it the moment that “the gates of wisdom would open.” For us, 1840 is a symbol of how global upheaval can lead to a reimagined world. Today, we face another “1840 moment”—troubled by tech disruption, mental health crises, and declining faith—that calls for bold questions, timeless sensitivity, and modern sensibilities. That’s what 18Forty is here to explore.

  • Donate
Subscribe
Donate

HOme

/

Articles

/

David Bashevkin

David Bashevkin

  • Halacha

    What Halacha Means to Me

    Halacha is a system of Jewish law and practice, but the language of halacha tells a story far deeper than just what to do or not.
  • Wealth

    What Wealth Means to Me

    Financial success has been a massive blessing for the Jewish community in America, but at what cost?
  • Is Religion Rational?

    What Rationality Means to Me

    Without rationality, we can become unhinged, without any formal metric or system to measure our convictions. But what happens after rationality?
  • Shabbos

    What Shabbos Means to Me

    Over time, one’s relationship with Shabbos can be indicative about other things and a view into one’s inner self as well.
  • Teshuva

    What Teshuva Means to Me

    I spent so much of my life building up these anxiety-inducing transitions, these Death of Superman narratives, when the real moments of personal growth and identity formation often happened in the moments in between.
  • Censorship

    What Censorship Means to Me

    The idea of “cancelling” someone is silencing them when an idea they share rubs people the wrong way, but is that censoring authenticity?
  • Agunah Crisis

    What the Agunah Crisis Means to Me

    The development of social media has become a popularized tool for agunot and others struggling with issues to share their unheard voices.
  • Intergenerational Divergence

    What Generational Differences Mean to Me

    Family is everything. But what happens when differences in values arise among those who are closest to you?
  • God

    What God Means to Me

    In order to refine our conception of God, it’s important to gaze into our pasts and examine the ground on which our current conceptions stand.
  • Social Justice

    How Do Mysticism and Social Justice Intersect?

    Many times, Orthodoxy is pitted against social reform due to an emphasis of traditional values, but that is often not the case.
  • Social Justice

    How Should We Educate About Social Justice?

    Those who persecuted Jews showed that they could not tolerate difference, and such a civilization fails a moral requirement of humanity.
  • Social Justice

    Is There a Torah Approach to our Social Responsibility?

    Orthodox Jewry has long had a complicated relationship with social justice and engagement with the world beyond Orthodoxy. Why is this so?
Loading…Load More

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY AND LEGACY OF PHILIP EICHEN, EPHRAIM FISHEL BEN MORDECHAI Z”L AND ROSLYN EICHEN, RAZEL BAT GERSHON, Z”L

Newsletters

Sign up for our Newsletter

We’ll keep your inbox stocked fresh with new topics, thoughts and ideas.

TOPICS

  • Topics
    • Topics

DISCOVER

  • Podcasts
  • Essays
  • Videos
  • Guests
    • Podcasts
    • Essays
    • Guests
    • Videos
    • Swag Shop

BOOK CULTURE

  • Book Journeys
  • Shabbos Reads
    • Book Journeys
    • Shabbos Reads

ABOUT US

  • Who we are
  • Submissions
  • Contact us
  • Donate
    • Who we are
    • Submissions
    • Contact us
    • Donate

Copyright ©

2026

18Forty

All Rights Reserved

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Help 18Forty Change Jewish Lives

Support Jewish explorations today by supporting 18Forty. Your partnership makes our work possible.
Donate today.