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Category: Halacha

Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 2): Sanhedrin, Dateline, the Rav on Kahane, and More

Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 2): Sanhedrin, Dateline, the Rav on Kahane, and More

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Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 2): Sanhedrin, Dateline, the Rav on Kahane, and More By Yaacov Sasson EDIT Please see this post for a crucial correction – it is the conclusion of the Rav’s family that the letter  in the Herzog Archive about Kahane is a forgery. This post continues from Part 1, here. V Renewal of Sanhedrin Another important file in Rav Herzog’s archive is his file on the renewal of Semicha and the Sanhedrin.[1] Among other letters, the file contains an unpublished…

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The First Artichoke Controversy of 2012

The First Artichoke Controversy of 2012

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The First Artichoke Controversy of 2012 By Leor Jacobi Recently a kashrut controversy surrounding traditional Italian fried artichokes has received major media coverage in the New York Times and the Seforim Blog (twice, in chronological order, not order of importance).  In order to prove the antiquity of Jewish artichoke consumption, depictions of artichokes in medieval illuminated haggadot have been adduced. These were the topic of a lesser-known artichoke controversy in 2012 here in the comments section of the Seforim Blog, which can be as nasty…

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Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More

Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More

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Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More By Yaacov Sasson A tremendous resource that will be of great interest to Seforim Blog’s readers has been made available to the public. The entire archive of the great Rav Yitzchak Eizik Halevi Herzog, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, has been scanned and is now available online.[1] The archive contains hundreds of files on a wide range of topics, including Rav Herzog’s Piskei Halacha and Torah novellae, extensive correspondence…

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The Not-So-Humble Artichoke in Ancient Jewish Sources

The Not-So-Humble Artichoke in Ancient Jewish Sources

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The Not-So-Humble Artichoke in Ancient Jewish Sources Susan Weingarten Susan Weingarten is an archaeologist and food historian living in Jerusalem. This is an adapted extract from her paper ‘The Rabbi and the Emperors: Artichokes and Cucumbers as Symbols of Status in Talmudic Literature,’ in When West met East: the Encounter of Greece and Rome with the Jews, Egyptians and Others: Studies presented to Ranon Katzoff on his 75th Birthday. Edited by D. Schaps, U. Yiftach and D. Dueck. (Trieste, 2016)….

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The Humble Artichoke

The Humble Artichoke

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The New York Times recently discussed a novel ruling of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.  The Rabbanut held that artichokes fall into the category of prohibited foods.  This is not because they are listed as such in the Torah. Rather the expansion of the biblical category is because of a secondary concern, the presence of insects.  Those insects may reside in the heart which without opening the tight leaves that comprise the vegetable one is unable to determine if insects are…

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כעומד לפני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies

כעומד לפני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies

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כּעומד לפֿני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies By Shaul Seidler-Feller Shaul Seidler-Feller strives to be a posheter yid and an oved Hashem; the rest is commentary. This is his third contribution to the Seforim blog; for his previous articles, see here and here. This post has been generously sponsored le-illui nishmat Sima Belah bat Aryeh Leib, z”l. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein enthusiasts might be surprised to learn that there was…

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