R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin, Kitniyot, R. Judah Mintz, and More Marc B. Shapiro 1. The last post dealt with R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin and I pick up with him here. Before moving forward, I have to thank R. Moshe Maimon who sent me a PDF of the essay attributed to R. Zevin which I discussed in the last post. It comes from the hebrewbooks.org hard drive that was released some time ago.[1] You can see it here. I also thank R. Eliezer…
מנהג אמירת ‘שלש-עשרה מידות’ בהוצאת ספר תורה בימים נוראים ובשלש רגלים ובפרט כשחל בשבת מאת: אליעזר יהודה בראדט אתחיל בעדות אישית[1]. בליל יום הכיפורים תשס”ה, שבאותה שנה חל בשבת, שמעתי באזני מפי הגרי”ש אלישיב זצוק”ל, שענה לשואל אחד שאין לאמרם בשבת, אע”פ שהשואל הסתייע מלוח ארץ ישראל לרי”מ טוקצ’ינסקי שיש לאומרם. אחר כך סיפר השואל לנוכחים שמפרסמים פסקים בשם הרב שאינם נכונים כלל וכלל. לשאלת השואל היה המשך מעניין: ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר. בתפילת שחרית לא נכח הגרי”ש בבית הכנסת,…
Borders, Breasts, and Bibliography By Elliott Horowitz Dan Rabinowitz has provided us which a characteristically learned pre-Passover post on the Prague 1526 Haggadah, specifically concerning the illustrations on its borders, and from those borders continues on to the always contentious subject of breasts, a bare set (or rather, two bare sets) of which he claims may be found on the title page of that edition. Indeed, on both the right and left borders of the title page may be found…
The Cup for the Visitor: What lies behind the Kos Shel Eliyahu? By: Eliezer Brodt In this post I would like to deal with tracing the early sources for the Kos Shel Eliyahu. A version of this article was printed last year in Ami Magazine (# 65). This post contains a few corrections and additions to that version. A much more expanded version of this article will appear in Hebrew shortly (IY”H). One of the memorable parts of the…
A Few Comments Regarding The First Woodcut Border Accompanying The Prague 1526 Haggadah The Prague 1526 edition of the Haggadah is one of the most important illustrated haggadot ever published. It is perhaps the earliest printed illustrated haggadah for a Jewish audience and served as a model for many subsequent illustrated haggadot.[1] The earliest printed haggadah with illustration was published in 1512 in Latin and for a non-Jewish audience. That haggadah contains six woodcuts, and was intended as a response…
Talmudic Humor and Its Discontents by Ezra Brand In honor of Purim, I’d like to discuss a few aspects of humor in the Talmud[1]. But first, a short overview of topic of Jewish humor in general. A lot has been written about Jewish humor[2]. A very good overview of Jewish humor, in general, is that of Avner Ziv in the second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, under the entry “Humor”[3]. However, most of the piece is about Jewish humor from the…
