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Shnayer Leiman – The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations

Shnayer Leiman – The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations

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1. In 1972, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica appeared in print. With 25,000 entries, it moved well beyond its distinguished predecessors, such as the Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1906), the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1939-43), and the short-lived German language Encyclopaedia Judaica (Berlin, 1928-34). Its special focus on the Holocaust and its aftermath, on the State of Israel, and on the centrality of the Jewish community in the United States, rendered it the most current and useful…

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Sale On Seforim Hard Drives

Sale On Seforim Hard Drives

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As discussed previously, there are two hard drive systems which contain thousands of seforim. Both of these will be on sale starting on Sunday June 3 for two weeks. For more information one can contact Mr. Flohr, who provided the information which appears below. Here are the sale prices: Otzar Hachochma – Hard Drive System Full version (23,000 seforim)- $1380 (reg. $1980) Bney Torah (21,500 seforim) – $1240 (reg. $1780) G’mara V’Halacha (15,800 seforim) -$930 (reg. $1320) Torah U’Midrash (15,800…

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The Custom of Akdamut on Shavuot

The Custom of Akdamut on Shavuot

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R. Brodt has already discussed the custom of azharot on Shavous, I wanted to discuss another Shavous custom – akdamut. Akdamut is the poem in Aramaic which is said around the time of the reading of the Torah on the first day of Shavuot. This poem, composed by R. Meir ben Isaac who lived in Worms in the 11th century. He was also know as R. Meir Sha”tz (Shiliach Tzibor). The poem itself describes what happens in heaven when the…

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The Custom of Azharot on Shavous

The Custom of Azharot on Shavous

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The Yom tov of Shavous called Yom Matan Torahsenu as it is the day we received the Torah thousands of years ago at Har Sinai. It has many minhaghim that we do to remind us of this such as putting up grass and flowers or eating dairy dishes. Another minhag which many Jews have is to say azharot today. In this post I would like to discuss a bit of interesting bibliographic information about some specific azharot and their authors….

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Review of a new edition of the Sefer Chasidim

Review of a new edition of the Sefer Chasidim

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As recently mentioned on this blog this generation is privileged to have many seforim especially rishonim being reprinted in critical editions based on manuscripts etc. One of the publishing houses which has been involved in publishing such works is Mechon Otzar haPoskim. A few years ago they released a few volumes of a critical edition of the Mahzhor Vitri which to date its still not complete. And now, a few weeks ago they published two volumes (of eventually four volumes)…

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Kabbalah Books Online

Kabbalah Books Online

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I am not sure why but it appears that a website in Czech (?) contains numerous Kabbalah seforim in their entirety free. These include the literature from Sefer Yetzirah, Zohar, R. Moshe Chaim Luzzato, Ari”Zal, R. Abraham Abulafia, and many others.

Anti Neturei Karta Book

Anti Neturei Karta Book

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There is a new book discussing the recent tactics of the Neturei Karta. What is perhaps unique about this book, Milchemet Charma by R. Daniel Biton, is that it devoted to demonstrating the Neutrei Karta are wrong; and doing so this from their own perspective. That is, he uses anti-Zionist texts – V’Yoel Moshe, letter of R. Elchonon Wasserman and the like – to show that although they are anti-Zionist they do not advocate praising anti-Semites or advocating for the…

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Kuntres ‘al Inyan Shabbat HaChatuna – A “Found” Book

Kuntres ‘al Inyan Shabbat HaChatuna – A “Found” Book

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Many times the rarity of a book is due to a controversy; either because it was limited in scope, i.e. was a polemic, and thus was no need to print thousands of copies or because of bans and the like. One such book is Kuntres ‘al Inyan Shabbat HaChatuna by R. Eliezer Supino (d. 1746). Until recently, it was thought this book no longer existed. But, a single copy (Unicum) was located and it has now been reprinted. The book,…

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Stolen Title Pages: The Case of An Unknown Contemporary Plagiarist

Stolen Title Pages: The Case of An Unknown Contemporary Plagiarist

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The title of this post – “Stolen Title Pages” – is not mine, instead, I have borrowed it from Chaim Lieberman. I have used this title because there are many forms of plagiarism – some, totally innocent – others involving lack of citation, borrowing a sentence here or there, but the plagiarism under discussion in this post is much worse than all of the above. The plagiarism discussed in this post is limited to just changing the title page –…

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Eliezer Brodt: A Behind The Scenes Look at Two New Editions: Part One

Eliezer Brodt: A Behind The Scenes Look at Two New Editions: Part One

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A few weeks ago, while perusing through the new Seforim at the Girsa Seforim store in Jerusalem, I noticed a new מנחת פתים from ר’ מאיר אריק. At first I thought it was another plain old reprint of the original one. But a few friends tipped me off to it being much more than a reprint. So off I went to purchase the seforim. This is a short review what this version is exactly. It’s a well known fact that,…

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Obituary for R. Yosef Tzvi Dunner, zt”l (Dei’ah veDibur)

Obituary for R. Yosef Tzvi Dunner, zt”l (Dei’ah veDibur)

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As a followup to a previous post, here is an excerpt from the obituary for R. Yosef Tzvi Dunner, zt”l, that appeared in Dei’ah veDibur: At the age of 19 he wanted to leave home to study in one of the illustrious yeshivas of Lithuania, but his father felt that given the dearth of rabbonim in Germany communities, before going to yeshiva he should study at a place that provides rabbinical training (smichus). He sent the young man to Beis…

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Some Harder to Get Seforim and Where to Obtain

Some Harder to Get Seforim and Where to Obtain

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In previous posts at the Seforim blog, we have attempted to highlight some of the more recently printed books, which are fairly easy to come by. However, I thought it worthwhile to mention some slightly older books, which are generally more difficult to obtain and where they can be obtained. I will highlight the contents of one store — Moznaim (718-438-7680) — in Boro Park. First, for literature of the Geonim, they have the Teshuvot HaGeonim. In this set, the…

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Eliezer Brodt – A Lively History of Reprinting Rabbeinu Yeruchem

Eliezer Brodt – A Lively History of Reprinting Rabbeinu Yeruchem

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In recent years, a host of critical editions of works on various rishonim have been published on all topics – some seeing the light of day for the very first time – on topics related to halakha, kabbalah, and chiddushim on the Talmud. These works have been made available via the major printing presses such as Mossad HaRav Kook, Machon Yerushalyim, Machon Talmud Yisraeli, Machon Harry Fischel and others. However, one very important work has noticeably been omitted from being…

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Review of Dr. Michael Stanislawski, “A Murder in Lemberg: Politics, Religion, and Violence in Modern Jewish History”

Review of Dr. Michael Stanislawski, “A Murder in Lemberg: Politics, Religion, and Violence in Modern Jewish History”

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Some have already pointed out that Columbia University Professor Michael Stanislawski has a new book/thriller. This book describes the murder of R. Abraham Kohn and the events leading up to it and its aftermath. Prof. Stanislawski attempts to discern whether, in fact, R. Kohn was murdered — Stanislawski thinks so — and in doing so, provides a wonderful description of Lvov (Lemberg) during the mid-nineteenth century. The basic background is that R. Kohn was a Reform Rabbi who became the…

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The Eighth and Final Volume of Daniel Sperber’s Minhagei Yisrael Has Appeared

The Eighth and Final Volume of Daniel Sperber’s Minhagei Yisrael Has Appeared

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Mossad HaRav Kook has just published the eighth and final volume of Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber’s Minhagei Yisrael. This final volume includes a complete and comprehensive index of all eight volumes volumes of Minhagei Yisrael. For this reason alone this volume is worthwhile, as anyone who has used the prior volumes knows, at times topics are spread over multiple volumes, sometimes in footnotes, which makes it difficult to locate particular topics. The first index is comprised of multiple indices; Mishna,…

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