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Category: Sukkot & Simchat Torah

Simchas Torah and its Customs Including an Appendix from: R’ Chaim Zev Malinowitz Zt”l Celebrating Simchas Torah All Year Round

Simchas Torah and its Customs Including an Appendix from: R’ Chaim Zev Malinowitz Zt”l Celebrating Simchas Torah All Year Round

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At the end of the Yom Tov of Succos there is a special Yom Tov called Simchas Torah. While in Eretz Yisroel it’s celebrated on the eighth day of Succos, Shmini Atzeret; in Chutz L’Aretz it’s celebrated the day after Shmini Atzeret. Simchas Torah is a day of great Simcha and like all of our Yom Tovim is replete with its own unique customs. This article is in no way an attempt to cover all of the many aspects of…

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Renewal of the Hakhel Ceremony in Jerusalem and New York

Renewal of the Hakhel Ceremony in Jerusalem and New York

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A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a musmach of RIETS, Aaron is the Associate Director, Private Equity and M&A Finex at WTW Israel. He lives with his wife and four children in Mishkafayim, Ramat Bet Shemesh. As we come to the final days of the Shmitah year, preparations will soon begin for the Zecher LeHakhel events that will occur starting with the new year of 5783 (2022), which is a Motzei Shmitah year (the year following…

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Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber shiurim this week

Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber shiurim this week

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You are cordially invited to the following shiurim/lectures by the noted author, Rav Yechiel Goldhaber, whose respected research and scholarship is well-known. 1. The next shiur will take place Monday, September 16th, 8 PM at Lakewood Courtyard Simcha Room 8:00 pm Yiddish/English. 2. Tuesday, September 17th the shiur will take place in Monsey at 20 Forshay Rd at בית המדרש אור החיים פארשעי At 12:30 it will be in Yiddish and 8:30 it will be in English. 3. Wednesday September…

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Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber lectures tomorrow night, 9/9/19, & Wednesday, 9/11/19

Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber lectures tomorrow night, 9/9/19, & Wednesday, 9/11/19

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You are cordially invited to the following shiurim/lectures by the noted author, Rav Yechiel Goldhaber, whose respected research and scholarship is well-known. The first shiur will take place Monday, September 9th, 7:30 PM at 1454 54th Street, Brooklyn, NY. Rabbi Goldhaber’s speech will be delivered in Yiddish. The subject of this shiur is “The Mesorah of the Esrogim”. Rabbi Goldhaber will present the subject matter in a comprehensive, detailed yet clear manner, aided by drawings, pictures and photographs. This lecture…

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Simchas Torah & a Lost Minhag of the Gra

Simchas Torah & a Lost Minhag of the Gra

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Chol HaMoed Succos is the Yarzheit of the Vilna Gaon (for an earlier post on the Gra see here and here). In this post I hope to show a source for a “forgotten” Minhag of the Gra. In 1921 the great bibliographer (and much more) Yitzchak Rivkind described a strange custom he saw during the time he learned in Volozhin (after it was reopened and headed by R’ Rephael Shapiro), in an article about Minhag HaGra. On Simchas Torah they…

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New Book Announcement: Ginzei Chag HaSuccos

New Book Announcement: Ginzei Chag HaSuccos

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אסופת גנזים מתורתם של ראשונים בענייני חג הסוכות היוצאים לאור לראשונה מכתבי-יד עם מבואות, ביאורים והערות, עיונים ומפתחות, מהדיר: ר’ יעקב ישראל סטל, שע עמודים A new work by Rabbi Yakov Stahl was just printed. Rabbi Stahl’s work is familiar to many of the readers of the blog; for reviews of some of his earlier works see here, here and here. This volume is very similar in style to Kovetz Al Yad; it’s a collection of material by Rishonim all…

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The Mysteries of Hoshana Rabbah

The Mysteries of Hoshana Rabbah

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This article originally appeared last year in Ami Magazine (2016) This version has a many updates and corrections. I hope to revisit this subject shortly. The sources of our Yomim Tovim are relatively easy to find, as one simply locates the relevant pesukim or Gemara and starts from there. However, one Yom Tov does not have such a starting point: Hoshana Rabbah. Its roots and numerous customs are shrouded in mystery. This article is an attempt to shed a bit…

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‘אֲשֶׁר שַׂמְתִּי עֲרָבָה בֵיתוֹ’ ו’לֶחֶם לַנְּעָרִים’ – השימוש המִשני בערבות הלולב וההושענות למנהג איטליה הקדום

‘אֲשֶׁר שַׂמְתִּי עֲרָבָה בֵיתוֹ’ ו’לֶחֶם לַנְּעָרִים’ – השימוש המִשני בערבות הלולב וההושענות למנהג איטליה הקדום

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השימוש המִשני בערבות הלולב וההושענות למנהג איטליה הקדום* “…The aravot, with which they observed the commandment of lulav, or the ‘ritual of the aravah’ (on Hoshana Rabah), would be discarded after their use. However, the German sages, as a token of their love for mitzvot, were wont to keep them in order to perform future mitzvot, such as for burning chametz or baking matzot on erev Pesach. The German custom has a Talmudic basis, that if an object is used…

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Regarding Haftarah on Simchat Torah and the daily obligation to recite 100 blessings

Regarding Haftarah on Simchat Torah and the daily obligation to recite 100 blessings

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Simchat Torah is not mentioned anywhere in the two Talmuds or Midrashim . 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 . In fact it seems that every synagogue read at its own speed without any established cycle, so speaking of the specific “day”…

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The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses

The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses

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James A. Diamond, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo. He is currently a Fellow of the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project sponsored by the Herzl Institute in collaboration with the John Templeton Foundation. His latest book is Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon, published by Cambridge University Press (http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/maimonides-and-shaping-jewish-canon). This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Every year, the joy I experience on Simchat Torah, is somewhat diminished by the apparent dismal…

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What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom

What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom

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Steven had the privilege and good fortune of learning from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ztz”l and Rav Yaakov Meidan Shlit”a at Yeshivat Har Etzion (1982-83) and prior to that from Rav Yisroel Mendel Kaplan ztz”l and other Rabbeim at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He is currently working on a series of essays on the theme of Shivat Tzion and its contemporary resonance. Introduction The seventh day of Sukkot – the day we now call הושענא רבה – has no special…

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The sukkah on Shemini Atzeret controversy

The sukkah on Shemini Atzeret controversy

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Introduction: Arguments about eating in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeret outside of Israel have a long and somewhat baffling history. While not the only example of practice in opposition to the Shulchan Aruch, it appears to be among the most argued. The gemara, Rambam, the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch, written in many locales, all seem to be as unambiguous as possible in requiring one to eat in the sukkah. The Gaon, incensed by the spreading Chassidic custom to eat…

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New Book On the Kashrut of Modern Etrogim

New Book On the Kashrut of Modern Etrogim

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Sukkot is fast approaching. For many this means selecting a “mehudar” etrog. Depending upon where one is this task can involve not only selecting an etrog with or without a pitum, bumpy or smoother, with or without a gartel, or a host of other considerations, but also selecting which type, Berman or Hazon Ish. Indeed, today, there are variety of types of etrogim identified by the farm or personalities that have ostensibly certified them as Kosher for use during the…

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Women, Simchat Torah, and Censorship

Women, Simchat Torah, and Censorship

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A recent book, Mi-pehem, (Bnei Brak,2008), collects interviews that were conducted with various Gedolim. One interview was conducted with Rebbetzin Ginsburg the daughter of R. Yechezel Levenstein. In the course of this interview she described the Simchat Torah celebration at the Mir in Europe:אבל שמחת תורה בישיבה היה משהו מיוחד. הנשים עמדו בפינת בית המדרש מאחורי מחיצה, ומחכות בהתרגשות לתחילת ההקפות! (מפיהם, עמ’ 199). According to this interview, women in the Mir were behind the Mechetziah. But, I recall hearing…

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Pini Dunner – Handbill Defending the Use of the Corfu Etrogim

Pini Dunner – Handbill Defending the Use of the Corfu Etrogim

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B.A (Hons), formerly rabbi of London’s Saatchi Synagogue, is an avid collector of polemical and controversial Hebraica, with a very large, diverse private collection of such material. Many items in his collection are unknown and unrecorded, and relate to long forgotten, obscure controversies. This is Pini Dunner’s third post at the Seforim blog. His first post, “Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931,” is available here; his second post, “Unknown Picture of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, c.1930s,” is available here. For…

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