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Category: Parshanut & Bible Commentary

Interview with Rabbi Moshe Maimon About his Edition of R. Avraham b. HaRambam’s Peirush on Chumash

Interview with Rabbi Moshe Maimon About his Edition of R. Avraham b. HaRambam’s Peirush on Chumash

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Last year I wrote: The second volume of R. Avraham b. HaRambam’s peirush on Chumash Shemot was released (832 pp.). This new edition was edited by Rabbi Moshe Maimon and was published in a beautiful edition by Machon Aleh Zayis. Last year, Rabbi Maimon published the first volume (678 pp.) I hope to publish very shortly, on the Seforim Blog, an interview with the author where he describes in greater depth his work on R. Avraham b. HaRambam, and his…

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Which Direction is North?, Geographical Mistakes, and our Woke Universities

Which Direction is North?, Geographical Mistakes, and our Woke Universities

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1. Numbers 34:15 states: “Two and a half tribes have taken their inheritance on the side of the Jordan by Jericho, to the front, eastward.” Rashi comments: קדמה מזרחה: אל פני העולם שהם במזרח, שרוח מזרחית קרויה פנים ומערביות קרויה אחור לפיכך דרום לימין וצפון לשמאל This passage is translated as follows in ArtScroll’s Sapirstein edition: To the Front, Eastward: This means to the front of the world, which is in the east, for the eastern direction is called “face”…

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The Meaning of Ayelet Ha-Shaḥar at Tehillim 22:1

The Meaning of Ayelet Ha-Shaḥar at Tehillim 22:1

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MFirstAtty@aol.com The phrase השׁחר אילת is found at Tehillim 22:1. The entire verse reads: “la-menatzeaḥ al ayelet ha-shaḥar mizmor le-David.” What is the meaning of השׁחר אילת ? This is the only time this phrase appears in Tanakh. Its meaning is so unclear that Radak offers five interpretations! Literally, השׁחר אילת means: “doe of the dawn.” A male deer would be an ayal. An ayalah is a female deer (=a doe). Ayelet is the construct state of ayalah. It means…

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New Sefer Announcement – פירוש התורה לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, ספר שמות

New Sefer Announcement – פירוש התורה לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, ספר שמות

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פירוש התורה לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, ספר בראשת, תרעח עמודים פירוש התורה לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, ספר שמות, תתלב עמודים מאמר על הדרשות ועל האגדות לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, מעיתיק השמועה, [בירורים בתולדות חכמי התלמוד] צז+צ עמודים Recently the second volume of R. Avraham b. HaRambam’s perush on Chumash Shemot was released (832 pp.). This new edition was edited by Rabbi Moshe Maimon and was published in a beautiful edition by Machon Aleh Zayis. Last Year Rabbi Maimon published the…

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The Significance of Avraham Avinu’s Performance of the Mitzvot

The Significance of Avraham Avinu’s Performance of the Mitzvot

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Perfection for a Jew can only be realized through the performance of the mitzvot [commandments] of the Torah, which were given from G-d to Moshe on Sinai [Matan Torah]. Since man is finite, his thinking and understanding is limited and constrained to factors of time and space. Man is not capable, and it is beyond his intellectual reach, to calculate a finite system that can relate to the infinite ruchaniyut world—existence beyond time and space. Man needed a revelation from…

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Parshanut in English: Rabbinic Bible Commentary in Translation

Parshanut in English: Rabbinic Bible Commentary in Translation

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The following revises, expands upon and updates my previous effort on this forum. Originally it was meant as a ten year retrospective, to see not only which works were completed in that time span but also which commentators were first touched upon. Of course, in the course of my research, I found several errors of mine from the earlier edition, and many items I had neglected to include, or was not even aware of before. Technical difficulties have delayed its…

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Post-Mosaic Additions to the Torah?

Post-Mosaic Additions to the Torah?

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H. J. Zimmels published the two passages from R. Avigdor just mentioned,[1] but there is another comment that appears as a note to R. Avigdor’s manuscript. It has recently been published by Miriam Weitman,[2] and states: וישם את אפרים לפני מנשה פי’ לא על יעקב אמ’, אל’ משה רבינ’ שם ראש דגל אפרי’ לפני מנשה בעבור שיעקב אמ’ ואחיו הקטן יגדל ממנו, ויהושע או אנשי כנסת הגדול’ כתבו, דאי משה כתבו אם היה לו [צ”ל היה לו לומר] אני שמתי…

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Don’t Oppress the Ger

Don’t Oppress the Ger

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The Torah in Motion blog by Rabbi Jay Kelman discusses the daily daf as well as the parashah of the week. When reviewing Baba Metzia 59, Rabbi Kelman mentioned that the Talmud stated that there were 36 or 46 places where the Torah commands not to oppress the stranger/convert (ger), but that he was not aware of any list of the verses in question. This paper is an attempt to generate such a list. We will begin with the Talmudic…

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The Haftarot for Behar and Behukkotai

The Haftarot for Behar and Behukkotai

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The old Babylonian practice was to read Jeremiah 16:19 as the haftara for Parashat Behar and Ezekiel 34 for Parashat Behukkotai, and this is attested to in most of the relevant Cairo Geniza fragments. One of them, Cambridge T-S B15.4, aside from also indicating this, is written in the Oriental Hebrew script and vocalized with the Babylonian supralinear system, indicating its antiquity. Moreover, these haftarot are listed by R’ Shlomo ben Natan, and their verses are the basis for the…

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Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1

Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1

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1. In my last post here, in discussing R. Joseph Hertz’s suggested alternative text for Maoz Tzur, I wrote that this suggestion “was simply made up by Hertz or perhaps suggested by an unnamed collaborator on his siddur commentary.” At least one person wondered if I had anything in mind when I wrote about “an unnamed collaborator.” Indeed, these words were chosen deliberately. I do not know anything specifically about collaborators on the siddur commentary. However, we do know about…

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The Ze’enah –Re’enah and its Author

The Ze’enah –Re’enah and its Author

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Ze’enah –Re’enah and its Author Morris M. Faierstein, Ph.D. It has traditionally assumed that Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac of Yanova was the author of the Ze’enah U-Re’enah. Every edition of the Ze’enah U-Re’enah lists him as the author on the title page. Recently, this assumption has been questioned and the suggestion made that there may have been another author of this seminal work in addition to Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac. This article will consider two aspects of the Ze’enah U-Re’enah…

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Towards a Bibliography About Realia and Chumash, specifically relating to the Mishkan and Bigdei Kehunah

Towards a Bibliography About Realia and Chumash, specifically relating to the Mishkan and Bigdei Kehunah

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Learning Chumash and Nach is extremely important for many reasons. Over time it became a neglected subject (why is the subject of a different post IY”H) and in many circles is still true today. Sadly, many people remain with the images of the various stories from Tanach the way they heard it in their youth without a genuine understanding of the events. I strongly believe that learning Tanach properly (by both students in school and adults) could help with some…

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Parshat Tetzaveh. Greek letter Chi and Tav in Paleo-Hebrew

Parshat Tetzaveh. Greek letter Chi and Tav in Paleo-Hebrew

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Rashi on Parshat Tetzave writes that the priests were anointed with oil, poured in the shape of the Greek letter כי. One would assume this is referring to letter Χ – 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet which sounds somewhere between English K and H . This letter spelled χῖ in Greek, is usually spelled “Chi” in English and indeed if one wanted to write it in Hebrew, he would probably transcribe it as כי (where Chaf is intended without…

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Parshegen, A New work on Targum Onkelos: Chumash Vayikrah

Parshegen, A New work on Targum Onkelos: Chumash Vayikrah

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רפאל בנימין פוזן, פרשגן, ביאורים ומקורות לתרגום אונקלוס, ויקרא, 672 עמודים. A few years ago I wrote about and strongly recommended an excellent work on Targum Onkeles written Dr. Posen. I wrote an additional post related to this work discussing some of the sources he uses in his works. At the time, the first volume on Chumash Bereishis was printed; the second volume on Chumash Shemos was printed in 2014 (780 pp.). Just a few weeks ago, in time for…

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