New Books from Biegeleisen – May 2009
Halkhot Gedolot, Berlin-Hildesheimer ed., Otzreinu, Toronto, 2009, 2 vol., 22, 162, [3]; 652 pp.: This is a reprint of the important Geonic work based upon a different manuscript than the other printed editions. Additionally, it includes a new brief introduction and additions to the Seder Rav Amram Goan also published by Otzeinu.
Kol Brisk, Jerusalem, 2009, 797 pp. This is a controversial work that explores the Brisk school and attempts to locate the current Brisk school with the European one. It is has already been subject to pashkevilin and one can read more about it all here and here.
Beyamin Shlomo Hamburger, Meshekhe ha-Sheker u-Mitnagdehem, Machon Moreshet Ashkenaz, Beni Brak, 2009, 703 pp. This is an significantly updated and expanded version (the prior version is only 347 pages) of R. Hamburger's work on various false messiahs in Jewish history. As anyone who read the original version knows, R. Hamburger takes a very broad view of the term "messiah." (read more here)
Shmuel Glick, Mekorot le-Tolodot ha-Hinukh be-Yisrael, vol. 5, New York & Jerusalem, 2009, 30 [2] 452 pp. This is the fifth volume in the revised work originally done by Simcha Assaf collecting sources on Jewish education. The first three volumes reprinted Assaf's original work with some updating of the notes. The fourth and now the fifth contains new material. In particular, the fifth volume focuses on the European responsa literature from the 15th-20th centuries. As the editor points out in his introduction, Assaf's work is particularly weak in this area and thus this substantially adds to Assaf's sources. The introduction also explains why the focus on responsa literature in particular, although one assumes it was natural for Glick, who has been editing a bibliography on responsa literature, to focus on the responsa. Additionally, in the introduction, the editor notes that volume six, which will focus on Sefard responsa, will be out soon.