As with all the other volumes of Minhagei Yisrael there are also additional articles discussing minhagim. This volume starts off with a long quote from Rabbi Chaim Williamowsky. This quote, typifies the vast majority of Professor Sperber’s articles in this volume. R. Williamowsky notes that it is important to trace the history of minhagim as some are non-Jewish in origin and instead were borrowed and adopted from foreign cultures. Sperber then spends the next 100+ pages discussing minhagim which fall into that latter category. Sperber discusses the following customs — I have provided citations only if the custom is not the main focus of an article — the groom stepping on the foot of the bride (p. 14 n. 4 [and should make this person happy that in fact it has non-Jewish roots]); upsherin; round-matzot which are not linked to a non-Jewish custom, only that there is no reason to prefer round over square (p. 29-30 n. 26); which day of the week to get married, including a discussion of Friday marriages (p. 33 n. 13); marriage during a waxing of the moon (p. 37-40); bride and groom fasting on their wedding day; the huppah canopy; not having knots at the wedding (p. 71 n. 11); throwing a shoe at a wedding; burning clothing at the graves site of R. Shimon bar Yochai; feeding mourners eggs after the burial (p. 72); the additional “holy” names in mezzuzot, tzizit as protection (p. 112 n. 61 – this one may have gone from Jews to non-Jews as well as the notion of a door post protect, see idem); the use of פי פי פי to concentrate during prayers (p. 113); dipping bread in salt to protect from evil spirits.

Sperber is able to trace back almost all of these topics and offer why and when the Jews accepted what was common amongst from within the particular culture they were living. Sperber’s sources are especially helpful as, at times, others have made arguments that customs are originally non-Jewish in nature but provide no sources. For instance, both R. Gavriel Zinner and then R. Benyomin Hamburger both note the possibility that upsherin comes from non-Jewish sources. But neither provides any detail on this point. Sperber fills a significant lacuna.

Although the above makes up the bulk of this volume there are few other items of interest. Sperber offers a possibility why the custom arose to say the verse ויהי בנסע ארון at the removal of the Torah and then also discusses the recitation of the Ten Commandments at קריאה שמע על המטה. The rest of the articles are additions to this one. That is a discussion about the placement of the Ten Commandments generally by Professor Meir Schwartz. Additionally, as the source for the recitation is R. Yitzhak Klover, grandfather of the R. Shelomoh Luria (Maharshal), Dr. Meir Rapfeld provides biographical and bibliographical information about this important figure. Dr. Rapfeld also has a discussion about a custom in the synagogue of the Maharshal. There is an article from R. Meir Kodesh discussing the custom amongst mourners to wear black.

Finally, as in all of the previous volumes, Prof. Sperber has included additions and corrections covering all of the volumes.

In all, this is an excellent end to a terrific series on minhagim. The book is available in Israel directly from Mosad HaRav Kook who currently is running a sale and in the US at Biegeleisen books (and in due course) at your local seforim store.

HaRav Yosef Tzvi Dunner, who recently passed away in London at the age of 94, was the scion of a prominent European rabbinical family and father and grandfather of noted British Orthodox rabbis, Rabbi Abba Dunner and Rabbi Pini Dunner, respectively. In a recent email correspondence with Professor Marc B. Shapiro, author of the landmark biographical study of Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg[1] and several articles related to the leaders of the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary,[2] he informed me that Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dunner was the final surviving musmakh of the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary (Orthodox).

In the April 12, 2007 edition of Hamodia: The Newspaper of Torah Jewry, there is a very nice obituary for Rabbi Dunner, (see PDF); however, it is interesting to note how they neglected to make mention of Rabbi Dunner’s studies at Berlin Rabbinical Seminary as they write:

At 19 he wanted to study in the yeshivos of Lithuania, but his father felt that due to the shortage of Rabbanim in Germany, it would be better for him to remain in the country and study in the beis medrash of Harav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l, author of Seridei Eish. For four years, the young Rav Yosef Tzvi studied in this beis medrash, where he was awarded semichah at a young age after astounding those testing him with his penetrating understanding of all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch. He was granted the title yoreh yoreh, yadin yadin.

Professor Shapiro further noted that

This appears to be the first time that the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary has been referred to as the Beis Medrash of R. Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (with all that this implies). Next time they don’t want to mention that someone received semichah at RIETS, they can say he studied in the Beis Medrash of (supply the name).

For additional biographical information on Rabbi Dunner zt”l, see here and here.

Sources:
[1] Marc B. Shapiro, Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966 (London: Littman Library, 1999); For a brief discussion of the founding of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary of Berlin in 1873, see ibid., page 76. See also Michael Meyer, “The Establishment of Rabbinical Schools in Germany – A comparative Analysis” [Hebrew], in Immanuel Etkes, ed., Yeshivot and Battei Midrash (The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History and The Ben-Zion Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 2006), pp. 199-207.
[2] For an assortment of Shapiro’s article/reviews on leaders of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary of Berlin, see “Letters of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg [Hebrew],” Ha-Ma’ayan 32 (Tammuz, 5752 [1992]): 6-20; Review of “David Ellenson, Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy,” Tradition 26 (Spring, 1992): 104-107; “The Autobiography of Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer [Hebrew],” Alei Sefer 17 (1993): 149-150; “Letters of Rabbi David Zevi Hoffmann, Rabbi Moses Feinstein, and Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg [Hebrew],” Ha-Ma’ayan 34 (Tevet, 5754 [1994]): 9-20; “Rabbi David Zevi Hoffmann on Torah and Wissenschaft,” Torah u-Madda Journal 6 (1995-1996): 129-137; “Scholars and Friends: Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg and Professor Samuel Atlas,” Torah u-Madda Journal 7 (1997): 105-121; “Responsa and Letters of Rabbi David Zevi Hoffmann [Hebrew],” Ha-Ma’ayan 37 (Tammuz, 5757 [1997]): 1-14; “On Targum and Tradition: J. J. Weinberg, Paul Kahle and Exodus 4:22,” Henoch 19 (1997): 215-232; “Rabbi David Tsevi Hoffmann on Orthodox Involvement with the Hebrew University,” Tradition 33 (Spring, 1999): 88-93; “Understanding the Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg,” Algemeiner Journal (June 6, 2000); “Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer’s Program of Torah u-Madda,” Torah u-Madda Journal 9 (2000): 76-86; “R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg on the Limits of Halakhic Development,” Edah Journal 2:2 (2002; online at www.edah.org); “Thirteen Additional Letters by Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg [Hebrew],” Ha-Ma’ayan 45 (Tevet, 5765 [2005]): 1-17.

Again the Judaica Archival Project and VirtualGeula offers its active subscribers and members a chance to participate from anywhere in the world at the same discount prices you would pay as if you attended the sale yourself (and without the line-ups). See here to view the 30 page catalog and to place your order.

תוספות ר”י הזקן ותלמידו

וראשוני בעלי התוספות על מסכת שבת Tosafot R. Isaac b. Samuel of Dampierre (Ri the Elder) and early Tosafists on tractate Shabbat edited for the first time from MS Guenzburg, Mos 636 with references, notes and comments by Rabbi Avraham Shoshana Rabbi Yehuda Amitai Shoshana Volume I Introduction · Chapters 1-6 · Indices This is a unique collection of the early Tosafists, a treasure trove of first-generation Tosafot from France and Germany. Published for the first time from Guenzburg Manuscript 636, considered by scholars to be the most important manuscript extant in the world today, especially in the field of Tosafot literature. The collection includes Tosafot Ri ha-Zaken and his disciple and first-generation Tosafists, such as RIBA, R. Porat, Rashbam, Rabbenu Tam, etc. [Volume II of this collection, to be published shortly, will include Tosafot Ri ha-Zaken and his disciple on chapters 7-17, and the Tosafot R. Yehuda Sir Leon of Paris, and Tosafot Riva, written by his disciple, R. Moshe b. R. Yoel Zaltman of Regensburg on the remainder of the tractate.]

This collection of Tosafot preserves complex and novel material which served as the foundation for the redaction of all later collections of Tosafot on Tractate Shabbat. As proven in the scholarly introduction to this volume, Rishonim, such as Ramban, Rashba, Ritva and Tosafot Harosh, used these very Tosafot or a close genre. The author was a disciple of Ri ha-Zaken who transmitted his lectures in the Yeshiva and wrote down verbal exchanges he had with his mentor dealing with complex matters. Aside from his mentor’s Torah, the author included material from earlier Sages of Tosafot, such as Rabbenu Tam, Riva, Rashbam, Rabbenu Porat, etc. Another outstanding feature of this manuscript is the outstanding and profuse glosses (gilyonot) that accompany it. These glosses were intended to serve as supplementary material. They are drawn mainly from the early Sages of Ashkenaz. It may be said with certainty that there isn’t one passage in this collection that does not introduce novel ideas which open up new vistas for the understanding of the vast Tosafot literature and matters relating to Tractate Shabbat. All in all, this is an outstanding discovery of great consequences to rabbinical literature.

The volume is accompanied by source references, comparisons to Tosafot literature and other Rishonim, notes and expanded illuminations, which comprise a comprehensive commentary to the entire work. The volume also includes a substantial scholarly introduction dealing with the manuscript provenance and its contents, the identification of the authors and an analysis of first-generation Tosafot in general. The discovery of Tosafot of Rabbi Yehuda Sir Loen of Paris included in this manuscript, is a first and a delightful surprise.

The volume provides detailed indices. They include index of sources of the work itself, sources discussed in the notes, and an index of subjects classified by topics. Edited by Rabbi Avraham Shoshana and Rabbi Yehuda Shoshana 58 + 479 double-columned pagesAvailable now at Biegeleisen’s in Boro Park. It will have wider distribution after Pesach in bookstores or directly from Ofeq Institute.

As a general matter, Or Yisrael consistently provides excellent articles, for instance they had a seminal series of the forged Yerushlami on Kodshim, important articles on customs, and halacha, as well as many other important articles. Issues of Or Yisrael are included in the Otzar haChochmah database for those who have access to it – or for free at Hebrewbooks.org under Journals.