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Category: Halacha

Hakirah, Metzitzah, and More

Hakirah, Metzitzah, and More

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Hakirah, Metzitzah, and More Marc B. Shapiro Hakirah has performed a valuable service in dealing forthrightly with the matter of homosexuality. Issue no. 13 (2012) contains R. Chaim Rapoport’s “Judaism and Homosexuality: An Alternative Rabbinic View,” which I think is an outstanding presentation of the alternative to what has seemingly become the “official” haredi position in this matter. This “official” position is, in my opinion, so misguided that I would like to say a few words on the topic, since R….

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Wine Strength and Dilution

Wine Strength and Dilution

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Wine Strength and Dilution by Isaiah Cox June 2009 Isaiah Cox trained as an historian at Princeton, and conducted postgraduate work in medieval history at King’s College London. He is also a technologist, with over 50 patents pending or issued to date. iwcox@alumni.princeton.edu There is a common understanding among rabbonim that wines in the time of the Gemara were stronger than they are today.[1] This is inferred because we know from the Gemara that wine was customarily diluted by at…

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Women and the Recitation of Kaddish by Rahel Berkovits – A Review Essay (Hebrew with English Synopsis) by Yael Levine

Women and the Recitation of Kaddish by Rahel Berkovits – A Review Essay (Hebrew with English Synopsis) by Yael Levine

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Women and the Recitation of Kaddish – A Review Essay Rahel Berkovits, A Daughter’s Recitation of Mourner’s Kaddish, New York: JOFA 2011, 102 pp. By Yael Levine The author holds a Ph.D. from the Talmud department at Bar Ilan University. She is the author of numerous articles related to women in Judaism. Rahel Berkovits has written a work about the recitation of kaddish by daughters and women generally. The main texts appear in Hebrew alongside an English translation. The publication…

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Summary of Jordan Penkower on reading Zekher or Zeikher Amalek

Summary of Jordan Penkower on reading Zekher or Zeikher Amalek

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Summary of Jordan Penkower on reading Zekher or Zeikher Amalek This post originally appeared here. It is a summary of Prof. Jordan Penkower’s Minhag u-Mesorah: ‘Z-kh-r Amalek’ be-hamesh o be-shesh nekudot by his student Yosef Peretz. It appears here with permission, with some additions by the Seforim Blog editor. It is common practice in most Ashkenazi congregations to read the words z-kh-r Amalek, in Deut. 25:19, twice: once with a tzere under the zayin (zeikher) and once with a segol…

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?להשתכר על ידי יין בפורים, זו מצוה או עבירה

?להשתכר על ידי יין בפורים, זו מצוה או עבירה

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להשתכר על ידי יין בפורים, זו מצוה או עבירה? נכתב ע”י משה צוריאל Editor’s Note: Rabbi Moshe Zuriel’s latest book, Le-Sha’ah u-le-Dorot (two volumes) has just appeared. At over 800 pages, it deals with all sorts of Torah matters, both halakhah and hashkafah. פסקו רבותינו: “חייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי” (שו”ע או”ח סימן תרצ”ה, סעיף ב’). העיר עליו רמ”א: “ויש אומרים דאינו צריך להשתכר כל כך, אלא ישתה יותר מלימודו [מהרגלו] ויישן. ומתוך…

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New work by Rabbi Stahl

New work by Rabbi Stahl

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New work by Rabbi Stahlby Eliezer Brodt ספר סגולה, ספר ראשון, ירושלים תשע”ב, ר’ יעקב ישראל סטל, 153 עמודים. As previously mentioned on the blog a new work by Rabbi Yakov Stahl was just printed (for reviews of some of his earlier works see here and here). This work is called Segulah (Hard cover, 153 pp.) Sefer Segulah is a collection of articles on disparate topics, related to Minhag, Halacha, Piyyut, Midrash and Aggadah. It is an excellent collection of…

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