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Egregious Mistakes Regarding Jewish Practice from National Geographic

Egregious Mistakes Regarding Jewish Practice from National Geographic

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Two elderly Jews were sitting on a bench in Hester Street Park on the lower east-side, fiercely debating one of the important issues perpetually debated on those benches. As the debate turned fiercer and fiercer, one exasperated Jew turned to the other and yelled, “I am not telling you a bubbe maaseh from chumash, it is the forvetz [forward] that I am quoting!” Readers of this blog have had their rabbinic emunas chachamim tested on many occasions. But at least…

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The Ancillary Benefits of Non-Jews on the Hebrew Book

The Ancillary Benefits of Non-Jews on the Hebrew Book

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In the history of the Hebrew book, the books, like the Jews themselves, have been subject to external persecution. Thus, some books and manuscripts have been totally lost. On the other hand there are a few examples of books or, as we shall soon demonstrate, technices that are are a product of external influences. Abraham Ibn Ezra had a very hard life. In his well-known formulation that appears at the beginning of his commentary to the Humash, he complains that…

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Elliott Horowitz — ‘The Howling Place of the Jews’

Elliott Horowitz — ‘The Howling Place of the Jews’

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In previous posts at the Seforim blog, Elliott Horowitz of Bar Ilan University, co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, and author of Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), has described Modern Amalekites [here], Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman [here], Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud [here], and Bugs Bunny [here]. This is his fifth contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Late in the first…

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Non-Jewish Iconography in Hebrew Books

Non-Jewish Iconography in Hebrew Books

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As we have discussed on numerous occasions, Hebrew books contain a fair amount of non-Jewish iconography and imagery that is of non-Jewish origin. See, for example, here, here, here and here. Of course, Marvin Heller’s article on Mars and Minerva appearing on Hebrew title pages, Marvin Heller, “Mars and Minerva on the Hebrew Title-Page,” in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 98:3, Sept. 2004, reprinted in Heller’s collected articles Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (which…

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Elliott Horowitz – Modern Amalekites From Adolf to Avigdor

Elliott Horowitz – Modern Amalekites From Adolf to Avigdor

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of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, described Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman [see here]. This is his fourth contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Modern Amalekites: From Adolf to Avigdor by Elliott Horowitz Well before the outbreak of World War II the Nazi regime in Germany came to be associated by many Jews with Israel’s ancient arch-enemy, Amalek. Perhaps the first to do so was the noted historian…

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David Berger A Brief Response To Marc B. Shapiro

David Berger A Brief Response To Marc B. Shapiro

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In response to Prof. Marc B. Shapiro’s recent comments in, “Thoughts on Confrontation & Sundry Matters Part II,” Prof. David Berger, submitted the following response to readers of the Tradition-Seforim blog. For the recently-published paperback edition of his book on Lubavitch messianism, which follows the Hebrew translation of his book — see David Berger,HaRebbe Melekh HaMashiach, Sah’aruriyyat ha-Adishut, ve-ha-Iyyum al Emunat Yisrael (Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2005) — and which includes a new introduction where he responds to earlier criticisms of…

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Marc B. Shapiro: Thoughts on Confrontation & Sundry Matters Part I

Marc B. Shapiro: Thoughts on Confrontation & Sundry Matters Part I

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What follows is a continuation of this post.Some people are so set on showing the differences between Christianity and Judaism that in the process they end up distorting Judaism. Let me start with an example that for the last fifteen years must be considered a Jewish teaching. By Jewish teaching I mean a view that is taught in the observant community. This doesn’t mean that all or even most people will agree with it, anymore than they agree with the…

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Thoughts on Confrontation & Sundry Matters Part I

Thoughts on Confrontation & Sundry Matters Part I

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Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s year-old essay, “No Friend in Jesus,” caused me to once again think about the Rav’s essay “Confrontation,” (available here) and how it should be understood. Before getting to that, let me note, for those who don’t know, that Soloveichik is emerging as one of the most interesting, if controversial writers, on interfaith matters. I don’t know if he picks the titles of his articles, but they are certainly catchy. In addition to “No Friend in Jesus,” I…

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Review of Ma'amar al Yishma'el

Review of Ma'amar al Yishma'el

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& Ish Sefer Solomon Ibn Aderet, Ma’amar al Yishma’el, Bezalel Naor ed., Spring Valley, NY, 2008, 178 pp. Bezalel Naor, Mitsvat Hashem Barah, Spring Valley, NY, 2008, 220 pp. R. Bezalel Naor, who has published a host of translations and explanations of R. Kook’s writings, as well as Post Sabbatian Sabbatianisms, discussing Sabbatean works, has published two works in a single volume. The first, Ma’amar al Yishma’el, is a critical edition of R. Solomon Ibn Aderet’s (Rashba) discussion of Islam….

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Some Literary, Scholarly & Halachic Perspectives on Medieval Ash

Some Literary, Scholarly & Halachic Perspectives on Medieval Ash

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George Eliot, in Daniel Deronda, depicts the ineffable, exquisite Mirah Lapidoth contemplating her recent abortive suicide attempt: She went on musingly– “I thought it was not wicked. Death and life are one before the Eternal. I know our fathers slew their children and then slew themselves, to keep their souls pure. I meant it so. (George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Chapter XVII) She elaborates, several chapters later: Then I thought of my people, how they had been driven from land to…

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Elliott Horowitz — “Between Hebron and Jerusalem”

Elliott Horowitz — “Between Hebron and Jerusalem”

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offered his review of Elliott Horowitz (of Bar-Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review), Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton University Press, 2006) — available here — and this past shabbat at Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Horowitz delivered a lecture entitled “Was the Massacre at Mercaz Ha-Rav Committed by Amalekites?” For those who missed this lecture (myself included), you can read his “Between Hebron and Jerusalem,” posted at JewSchool.com,…

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Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

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of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, responded to a discussion of Bugs Bunny’s purported Jewish identity. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud by Elliott Horowitz As is well known, during the 1950’s Edmund Wilson, the great (and perhaps greatest) American man of letters, began studying Hebrew, both in order to read the Hebrew Bible on his own, and in order to…

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Bibliography of Articles and Books on Nitel

Bibliography of Articles and Books on Nitel

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There are three books devoted to the topic of Nitel. Mordechai Menachem Goren, Hefaru Torasecha, Ma’amar Makif miMinhag Avosanu b’Yadanu Odos Lil haAfel Nitel Nacht UMinhag Yisrael l’Vatel meEsek haTorah, ,52, pages, 2004. This first contains a two page introduction and the next 52 pages discuss the custom, its sources, and the various opinions. The final 10 pages are some sources that are quoted in full. [Mordechai Menachem Goren], Hefaru Torasecha, (helek bet, b’inyanei haTekufa) . . . u’Migilas Nitel,…

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