Browsed by
Category: Editions, Reprints & Publishing

The Vanishing Note: Devorah, Women Dayanim, and a Missing הערה‎ in Hilchos Dayyanus

The Vanishing Note: Devorah, Women Dayanim, and a Missing הערה‎ in Hilchos Dayyanus

Comments 0 Comment

Whilst learning siman ז of Choshen Mishpat with my chavrusa, we found ourselves reading two different books. We were each using the Machon Yerushalayim edition of the Tur, we were on the same page, and we were looking at the same footnote — note ל״ב of the הגהות והערות. But my chavrusa’s note said almost nothing, and mine went on for some length. A comparison of title pages explained the discrepancy: I was working from the edition of תשנ”ג (1992/93),…

Read More Read More

Book Week 2026 & Year in Review: Hebrew Publishing is Alive and Well

Book Week 2026 & Year in Review: Hebrew Publishing is Alive and Well

Comments 3 comments

The following is a recap of the year in Hebrew Jewish publishing for 2026, highlighting unique and noteworthy titles while also marking the annual Book Week sales. As the list makes clear, despite the ongoing conflict and security challenges in Israel, Hebrew Jewish publishing has continued with remarkable vitality and productivity. This is a testament to the enduring commitment of authors, scholars, and publishers to the world of Jewish books and ideas. Among the highlights are critical academic editions of…

Read More Read More

תיובתות דחפץ חיים תיובתות – עלומות בשולי ההדפסה הראשונה של המשנה ברורה חלק א

תיובתות דחפץ חיים תיובתות – עלומות בשולי ההדפסה הראשונה של המשנה ברורה חלק א

Comments 16 comments

מנשה קפלן, רחובות Copies of the 1884 of the Mishnah Berurah first printing aren’t identical. Working from several surviving exemplars, Menashe Caplan documents the variants: Rav Chaim Elazar Wacks’s haskama appears in some copies but not others; the last line of the introduction comes in three versions (blank, a halakhic gloss, or thanks to three specific donors); a printing warning appears sporadically; three different subscriber lists circulate in different combinations. Nothing is accidental. The Chafetz Chaim sat in the Warsaw…

Read More Read More

Tracing the “Footsteps of the Messiah”: From Li-Nevukhei ha-Dor to Maamrei ha-Rayah

Tracing the “Footsteps of the Messiah”: From Li-Nevukhei ha-Dor to Maamrei ha-Rayah

Comments 3 comments

Longtime readers of Seforim Blog probably remember the leak in 2010 of Rav Kook’s Li-Nevukhei ha-Dor (“For the Perplexed of the Generation”) onto the internet, and the publication of a censored version by Makhon ha-Rav Zvi Yehuda shortly thereafter. This was a previously unseen work of Rav Kook, written during his time as a communal rabbi in Boisk, Latvia, around 1903-1904. It contains a fairly clear and thorough philosophical presentation of a pre-aliyah Rav Kook attempting to respond to the…

Read More Read More

Eliezer and Joseph ben Naphtali Hertz Treves: Hebrew Publishers, briefly, in the Mid-Sixteenth Century

Eliezer and Joseph ben Naphtali Hertz Treves: Hebrew Publishers, briefly, in the Mid-Sixteenth Century

Comments 3 comments

A Hebrew press was briefly active in Thiengen (Tiengen) in 1560. The publishers, from the distinguished rabbinic Treves family, were Eliezer and Joseph ben Naphtali Hertz Treves. The brothers only published six (possibly seven) books before being forced to close by a meeting of the leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, of the Swiss Confederation in June 1560, who feared that they were about to print the Talmud. The Treves family was noted for the many rabbinic scholars and communal leaders…

Read More Read More

Mikra Pashut: A New Reading of the Tanakh

Mikra Pashut: A New Reading of the Tanakh

Comments 29 comments

David Curwin is an independent scholar, who has researched and published widely on Bible, Jewish thought and philosophy, and Hebrew language. His first book, “Kohelet – A Map to Eden” was published by Koren/Maggid in 2023. Other writings, both academic and popular, have appeared in Lehrhaus, Tradition, Hakirah, and Jewish Bible Quarterly. He blogs about Hebrew language topics at www.balashon.com. A technical writer in the software industry, David resides in Efrat with his wife and family. I have read the…

Read More Read More

Book Week: 2025

Book Week: 2025

Comments 2 comments

Book Week has recently begun here in Eretz Yisrael. With gratitude to Hashem, this marks the eighteenth consecutive year that I’ve continued my annual tradition of highlighting noteworthy new titles during this time. Each year, around Shavuos, begins Shavua HaSefer—Book Week—a ten-day celebration of books and publishing. Many publishers extend their sales for the entire month. Shavua HaSefer takes place across the country in malls, bookstores, and special venues set up exclusively for these sales. Some locations focus primarily on…

Read More Read More

New Books from Kodesh Press

New Books from Kodesh Press

Comments 0 Comment

The Seforim Blog is proud to announce the publication of our frequent contributor Mitchell First’s newest book From Eden to Exodus: A Journey into Hebrew Words in Bereshit and Shemot. It comprises short essays on the parshas in Bereshit and Shemot, mostly related to words. Here is the table of contents: Available for purchase from Kodesh Press here I would also like to point out two other special recent new books from Kodesh Press: Rabbi Gil Student’s Articles of Faith:…

Read More Read More

Book Week 2024

Book Week 2024

Comments 1 comment

Book week recently began in Eretz Yisrael. Continuing with my now Seventeenth year tradition B”h, every year in Israel, around Shavuos time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week. Many of the companies offer sales for the whole month. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out just for the sales. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and…

Read More Read More

An Obscure Chumash Changes the Sefer HaChinuch Forever

An Obscure Chumash Changes the Sefer HaChinuch Forever

Comments 8 comments

I have a sefer in my collection with a very busy Shaar Blatt: It is a Chumash printed by Yosef, Yaakov, and Avraham Proops in Amsterdam, 1767. The Chumash contains some of the normal additions, such as Targum Onkelos and Rashi, along with two additions which are indicated as being “ואלה מוסיף על הראשונים”. I would like to focus on one of these additions, the Sefer HaChinuch. Placing the words of the Sefer HaChinuch underneath the text of the Chumash…

Read More Read More

New Sefer Announcement

New Sefer Announcement

Comments 1 comment

מודעא לבית ישראל, ביטול מודעה, מודעה רבה, תשובות גדולי ישראל בנדון מצות מכונה בפסח, קיא + שיא עמודים, ע”י, ר’ מרדכי קנאפפלער וישראל טרעס I am very happy to announce the republication of the original seforim published at the beginning of the Machine Matzah Controversy in Galicia in 1859. One sefer, Modah Le’beis Yisroel is a collection of Teshuvot of those who were against Machine Matzah and the other one, Bitul Modah contains the Teshuvot defending Machine Matzah. This volume…

Read More Read More

The Birkhat ha-Mazon as an Early Modern Supplementary Prayerbook

The Birkhat ha-Mazon as an Early Modern Supplementary Prayerbook

Comments 0 Comment

Ph.D. morrisfaierstein.academia.edu The opportunity to meet the liturgical needs of the Jewish community in the age of printing presented both possibilities and problems for the publishers and printers who wished to publish prayerbooks. Unlike biblical and rabbinic texts that were the same for all Jewish communities, prayerbooks were very diverse with different communities having their own rites and sub-rites. Another problem was what to include and what not to include in the text of given prayerbook. To include everything that…

Read More Read More

Book week 2023

Book week 2023

Comments 3 comments

Book week just began in Eretz Yisrael. Continuing with my now Sixteenth year tradition B”h, every year in Israel, around Shavuos time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week. Many of the companies offer sales for the whole month. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out just for the sales. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and…

Read More Read More

New Seforim Lists, Seforim Sale, Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale & Beta Version of My New Podcast “Musings of Book Collector”

New Seforim Lists, Seforim Sale, Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale & Beta Version of My New Podcast “Musings of Book Collector”

Comments 3 comments

The post hopes to serve three purposes. The first section lists some new interesting seforim and thereby making the Seforim Blog readership aware of their recent publication. Second, to make these works available for purchase for those interested. Third, the last part of the list are some harder to find books, for sale. (This is a continuation of this post.) Note: Some items are only available at these prices for the next 3 days. Part of the proceeds will be…

Read More Read More

New Book Announcement

New Book Announcement

Comments 9 comments

The Minchas Chinuch on Pesach Volume One, A deeper perspective on the Mitzvos of Leil Haseder (31+268 pp.) The Minchas Chinuch on Pesach volume Two, A deeper perspective on the Mitzvos of Chametz (34+283 pp.) I would like to announce the release of two new volumes from Rabbi Moshe Hubner series devoted to the the Minchas Chinuch, in English. The first volume, released right before Pesach last year, is devoted to the mitzvos of leil haseder, including the mitzvah of…

Read More Read More