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18Forty is a new media company that helps users find meaning in their lives through the exploration of Jewish thought and ideas.
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits’ Complicated Portrait of Faith
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits (1908 – 1992) was a traditional rabbi in an untraditional time, whose life encompassed the whole of the 20th…
With God in the Picture, Death Is Not a Lonely Experience
Unlike many other cultures, Judaism does not really subscribe to a personification of Death. The Torah has no equivalent to the Ancient…
After My Daughter Died By Suicide, I Vowed To Help Save Lives
Content warning: This essay discusses suicide, sexual assault, and other sensitive matters. Thank God, most people have not experienced the worst possible…
Ronit Heyd: ‘If Israel becomes less democratic, it will become less Jewish’
Ronit Heyd answers 18 questions on Israel, including democracy, religion, and the future of the Jewish state.
A Eulogy for a Man I Did Not Know
I do not remember his name. I am sure I knew it at the time. I must have heard it at least…
Should Judaism Be Orthodox, Post-Denominational, or Something Else?
This is the eighth essay of 18Forty’s new “Faith in Reason” series with Rabbi Steven Gotlib, released every month. Sign up for…
Yehoshua Pfeffer: ‘The army is not ready for real Haredi participation’
Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer answers 18 questions on Israel, including the Haredi draft, Israel as a religious state, Messianism, and so much more.
Chabad’s Mission Is Not Much Different Than Centrist Orthodoxy’s
In 11th grade, my high school arranged a special two-part lecture series on the “big Jewish questions” with a well-known speaker; among…
Three Weeks To Mourn the Kibbutzim of Slaughter
After witnessing the aftermath of the Kishinev Pogrom in 1903, Hayyim Bialik wrote his famous poem, “The City of Slaughter,” about The…
Anita Shapira: ‘You cannot wipe out Hamas’
Leading Israel historian Anita Shapira answers 18 questions on Israel, including destroying Hamas, the crisis up North, and Israel’s future.
David Horovitz: ‘We need this state to survive’
Times of Israel Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz answers 18 questions on Israel, including Western media, Gaza after the war, Israel’s future, and so…
His Ladder Will Take You to the Zohar
Meet Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (1885 – 1954). Rav Ashlag, known also as the Baal HaSulam after his most well-known work—a…