The rumour that we’ve all been waiting for has been confirmed!

Mossad ha-Rav Kook is publishing volume eight of Prof. Daniel Sperber’s Minhagei Yisrael and also reprinting the late Prof. Meir Hershkovics’ biography of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (Maharetz Chajes); both will be available next week in Jerusalem. Copies of these volumes will be available at Mossad ha-Rav Kook (02-652-6231) starting the end of this week and should be arriving in America at Biegeleisen in Boro Park (718-436-1165) within a week or two of being published.

Additionally — earlier tonight, Prof. Marc B. Shapiro delivered the second annual Dr. Asher Siev Memorial Lecture at Yeshiva University, entitled “A Non-Orthodox Traditional Approach: Reflections on the Authority of the Moroccan Rabbinate.” The lecture was very well received by those in the audience and the lecture is available for download here [17 megabytes].