admin – Page 37 – The Seforim Blog

נוסח סליחות אשכנזי מודפס ארבע עשרה בלתי ידוע

November 8, 2015 David Roth Comments 2 comments

לפי פרופ’ דניאל גולדשמידט ז”ל, יש שלש עשרה נוסחאות מודפסים של סליחות אשכנזים: אשכנז הכללי (פפד’מ), עלזאס, פיורדא-נירנברג, וורמייזא, פלאס, שוואבין-שוויץ, קוילן, אשכנזים שבאיטליה (כל הנ’ל הם שייכים לנוסח אשכנז המערבי), ליטא, פולין, בהמן, פוזנא, ובית כנסת הישן בפראג (ששייכים למנהג המזרחי). , בדרך כלל, אצל אשכנזים, נהוג לומר סליחות שונות בכל יום, ובכל הנוסחאות הנ”ל, יש סדר שונה לכל יום של ימי אלול וימי התשובה, וכן לשחרית, מוסף, ומנחה של יוהכ’פ.[4] כדי להבין את מה שמיוחד בספר סליחות שמצאתי…

Read More Read More

A Note Regarding Rav Simcha Zelig Reguer’s Position on Opening a Refrigerator on Shabbat

November 5, 2015 Yaacov Sasson Comments 1 comment

The purpose of this note is to correct an error that appeared in a widely-read journal nearly 25 years ago; the error is of sufficient consequence that it necessitates a correction, even after so many years. In their article, “The Use of Electricity on Shabbat and Yom Tov”, by Rabbis Michael Broyde and Howard Jachter (Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, No. XXI, Spring 1991), the authors cite Rav Simcha Zelig Reguer, the Dayan of Brisk, as having permitted opening…

Read More Read More

Assorted Comments on R. Jacob Emden, Ashkenazic Views of Sephardic Gedolim, and More

November 2, 2015 Marc B. Shapiro Comments 1 comment

1. Since I have discussed R. Jacob Emden in many posts, let me add the following. If you examine Emden’s Birat Migdal ha-Oz you find that he refers to himself as הסריס. Here is the Berditchev 1836 edition of the work, p. 135a. I think all would agree that this is a strange title to give oneself. In this work, p. 116a, he also calls himself שלו. On p. 44a he refers to himself as שאול. On pp. 101b and…

Read More Read More

עקידת יצחק בראי הלכה

October 30, 2015 Yechiel Goldhaber Comments 0 Comment

הפנימי המתנצנץ ובוער בלב כל נפש ישראל פנימה, ייסודו ומקורו מאותו עמוד לבת אש קודש שיקד והאיר את העולם ואת העולמות כולם, נשגב ונעלם מהשגת אנוש, טמיר ומכוסה אף משרפי מעלה ומלאכי מרום. רשפיה רשפי אש, מעמד העקידה הקדושה שעקד אברהם את יצחק בנו יחידו לה’. מעמד זה כל כולו “לב” – אהבה ויראה, צמאון ודביקות עד כלות הנפש. אך על כל שגבה ורוממותה, עם זאת, חכמי הדורות לא מנעו עצמם להעביר ענין זה בכלי ה”מוח”, ללמוד ולהבין, לבחנה בכור…

Read More Read More

Hot Tears For A Close Friend: Rabbi Eitam Henkin HY”D

October 28, 2015 Yechiel Goldhaber Comments 25 comments

I shall never forget when I first met Rabbi Eitam Henkin HY”D three years ago. At the time I had begun preparing a study on the parting of minds in the kollels of the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem 150 years ago. I managed to get my hands on a lot of rare sources, but the morass of material only beclouded the depths of the goings-on in the city at the time. The main purpose of my study was to ascertain…

Read More Read More

David Assaf – A Farewell to Eitam Henkin

October 26, 2015 David Assaf Comments 1 comment

Professor David Assaf is the Sir Isaac Wolfson Chair of Jewish Studies, the Chair of the Department of Jewish History, and the Director of the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland Relations, at Tel-Aviv University. A Hebrew version of this essay appeared at the Oneg Shabbat blog (6 October 2015) (http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2015/10/blog-post.html), and was translated by Daniel Tabak of New York, with permission of Professor David Assaf. This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Eitam Henkin…

Read More Read More

Avunculate Marriage in the Bible

October 25, 2015 Reuven Chaim Comments 0 Comment

(Rudolph) Klein Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is the author of the Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew [available here]. His book is available online and in bookstores throughout the world. Rabbi Klein published articles in various journals including Jewish Bible Quarterly, Kovetz Hamaor, Kovetz Chitzei Gibborim, and Kovetz Kol HaTorah. He studied at premier Yeshivas including the Mir in Jerusalem and BMG in Lakewood. He was most recently a fellow at the Tikvah Institute for Yeshiva Men (Summer 2015) and…

Read More Read More

Rambam’s Response to the Inclusion of Chicken, Duck and Quail in Qaraite Cuisine

October 22, 2015 Tzvi H. Adams Comments 57 comments

In “Waiting Six Hours for Dairy- A Rabbanite Response to Qaraism” (here) I posited that Rabbeinu Chananel initiated the practice of waiting six hours between meat and dairy in order to protect Rabbanite values. This association was inspired by Dr. Bernard Revel’s studies of Rabbanite leaders’ efforts to counter sectarian influences during the early Middle Ages , as well as a shiur by Rabbi David Bar-Hayim. I then suggested that Rambam furthered this anti-Qaraite motion by including poultry into the…

Read More Read More

Nachmanides Introduced the Notion that Targum Onkelos Contains Derash

October 20, 2015 Israel Drazin Comments 5 comments

www.booksnthoughts.com People today read Targum Onkelos and search it for derash, halakhah, and homiletical teachings. The following will show that the rabbis in the Talmuds and Midrashim and the Bible commentators who used the Targum before the thirteenth century recognized that the Aramaic translation only contains the Torah’s peshat, its plain meaning, and not sermonic material. It will survey how the pre-thirteenth century rabbis and scholars used Onkelos and how Nachmanides changed the way the Targum was understood. It was…

Read More Read More

R. Zevin, R. Ovadia Yosef, Pras haRav Kook and a Minor Case of Censorship

October 15, 2015 Jacob D. Comments 0 Comment

end of R. Zevin’s introduction to his Sofrim u-Sefarim we read – In R. Zevin’s footnote we see that one of the works that he wanted to review but didn’t yet get to was R. Ovadia Yosef’s two volumes of Yabia Omer. As someone who enjoys R. Zevin’s pen immensely (both his style and substance, especially the way he analyzes books and their authors) , and as someone that studies from R. Ovadia Yosef’s prolific halakhic literature quite often, I…

Read More Read More

Announcement of new works of Rishonim

October 13, 2015 Eliezer Brodt Comments 15 comments

מגנזי אירופה, כרך ראשון, ההדיר והוסיף מבואות: שמחה עמנואל, הוצאת מקיצי נרדמים, 512 עמודים. I am very happy to announce the publication of an important work which I have been eagerly waiting for, Professor Simcha Emanuel of the Hebrew University’s Talmud department’s volume of texts from the “European Genizah” (volume one). This volume was just printed by Mekitzei Nirdamim and is being sold by Magnes Press. New texts from Rishonim are high up on my list of favorite publications, all…

Read More Read More

Please note

October 12, 2015 Dan Rabinowitz Comments 0 Comment

The Seforim Blog is proud to provide a platform for freewheeling debate in a productive spirit. We do not moderate comments, because there has been no need. While tongues sometimes get sharp, we believe that overall the mood in the comments section has been in the spirit of comaraderie, with our readers and commenters sharing the bonds of a common interest and love of Jewish learning. Recently, to our dismay, the comments section has been transformed to something else. We…

Read More Read More

Review of James A. Diamond, “Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon” (2014) by Menachem Kellner

October 9, 2015 Menachem Kellner Comments 0 Comment

is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem, and the Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, where, among many other posts, he served as Dean of Students and Chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations, and founding director of Be-Zavta, a program in Jewish enrichment. His most recent book is Menachem Kellner: Jewish Universalism, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron Hughes in Brill’s Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, and…

Read More Read More

R. Yitchak Al-fasi’s Anti-Qaraite Legislative Activity

October 4, 2015 Tzvi H. Adams Comments 52 comments

R. Yitchak Al-fasi (1013 – 1103) lived in North Africa and Spain during the Golden Age of Qaraism. It is quite natural that we find many instances of anti-Qaraite legislation in his writings. Below are four such cases: 1) R. Al-fasi had the shofar blown on Shabbos Rosh HaShanah in his beth din in Fez, Morocco. (See discussion here: here). This ruling and practice baffled many later authorities as it seems to contradict the Talmud Rosh HaShanna 29b. R. Zerachiah…

Read More Read More

The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses

October 1, 2015 James A. Diamond Comments 0 Comment

James A. Diamond, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo. He is currently a Fellow of the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project sponsored by the Herzl Institute in collaboration with the John Templeton Foundation. His latest book is Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon, published by Cambridge University Press (http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/maimonides-and-shaping-jewish-canon). This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Every year, the joy I experience on Simchat Torah, is somewhat diminished by the apparent dismal…

Read More Read More