New book announcement: Yeshurun volume 36 By Eliezer Brodt This past Wednesday the thirty sixth volume of the Torah journal Yeshurun was released. As I am on the editorial board of this journal, I normally do not write a review of new volumes for fear of being biased, or the appearance thereof. In keeping with my stance, I will not write a review below, but rather just highlight some of the topics in the volume. Normally, Yeshurun is a bi-annual,…
A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments By Brian Schwartz When I was in my early yeshiva years studying tractate Shabbos, I came across a Rashba which I found to be most intriguing. During its discussion of the first mishna, the gemara in Shabbos 4a makes the statement, “וכי אומרים לו לאדם חטא כדי שיזכה חבירך,” which means, “do we really say to a person, ‘sin in order that your friend should merit?’” A notion which suggests that a person should…
Book announcement New edition of Avudraham and other works By Eliezer Brodt אבודרהם, עם הגהות וביאורים תהלה לדוד, א, ירושלים תשס”א, שכא עמודים אבודרהם, א, ירושלים תשע”ה, נערך מחדש על פי דפוס ראשון מוגה ומפוסק עם מקורת מלאים, מדור הערות הארות וביאורים מקורות ומקבילות לדברי רבינו, תפילות חול, 429 עמודים אבודרהם, ב, ירושלים תשע”ו, כהנ”ל, תפילות שבת ומועדים, 625 עמודים ר’ אליהו גרינצייג, קרואי מועד, פסח, שעה עמודים הנ”ל, קרואי מועד, ראש השנה, שלג עמודים הנ”ל, קרואי מועד, ספירת העומר…
Parshat Tetzaveh. Greek letter Chi and Tav in Paleo-Hebrew By Chaim Sunitsky Rashi[1] on Parshat Tetzave writes that the priests were anointed with oil, poured in the shape of the Greek letter כי.[2] One would assume this is referring to letter Χ[3] – 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet which sounds somewhere between English K and H[4]. 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…
Kaddish – His Will Leor Jacobi Note: I wrote the following essay outline several years ago, but shelved it upon discovering that most of its novelty and much more had already been published by David de Sola Pool over a hundred years ago.[1] On the sad occasion of the recent passing of my beloved mother I offer it now in her memory. Prayer and divinity were close to her heart. May our prayers be deepened by their study. The Kaddish…
Regarding Haftarah on Simchat Torah and the daily obligation to recite 100 blessings Chaim Sunitsky It is well known that Simchat Torah is not mentioned anywhere in the two Talmuds or Midrashim[1]. In fact we have no proof that in the times of Talmud they used to finish the Torah cycle reading on Simchat Torah. The prevalent minhag in the land of Israel was to read the Torah not in one year but approximately in three[2]. In fact it seems…
