Essays
Encoded in the Book of Esther are the answers to many of our collective, universal questions. How do we build a more just world? What must we do to restore a sense of the sacred to our marriages, homes, and society? How do we rekindle love in our relationship with the divine after heartache and disappointments? How do we become our most empowered selves?
Mordechai and Esther took the responsibility upon themselves to become spiritual parents to their people in exile, and model an evolving, co-creative relationship between each other and the divine.
Links to Research and Writing
LIST OF ESSAYS by Alana Ruben:
- An Overview of Jewish Medieval History and Philosophy
- Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav: A Jewish Shaman?
- Maimonides’ Epistle on Martyrdom: Maimonides, the Rhetorician, or Maimonides, the Posek? An Analysis of Haim Soloveitchik and David Hartman’s Differing Interpretations
- Ta’amei Ha-Mitzvot: Relationship-Building
- Compare and Contrast Dualistic and Ascetic Thought in the Philosophies of Rav Bachya Ibn Pakuda, Rav Moses Ben Maimon, and Rav Yehudah Loeb of Prague.
- Rahel Levin Varnhagen: The Intellectual Influences in her Life.
- Iggeret Teiman: Methodological Issues Raised in Rambam’s Letter to the Yemen Community.
- Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” as a statement of Orthodox Religious Practices
- The Spanish Inquisition
- Marc Chagall: The Early Influences that Shaped his Work
- The Architecture of Antoni Gaudi: The Irrational and the Beautiful
- Gustav Mahler: The Last Great Romantic Composer