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Category: Tu BiShvat & Lag BaOmer

Is there a rotten apple in the Tu-BeShevat Fruit Basket?

Is there a rotten apple in the Tu-BeShevat Fruit Basket?

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Is there a rotten apple in the Tu-BeShevat Fruit Basket? By Dan Rabinowitz and Eliezer Brodt [This post is heavily updated from an earlier Seforim Blog post – here] Some claim that the origins of the custom to celebrate Tu-beShevat as a holiday that includes eating fruits and other rituals, is Sabbatean. In the main, this assertion is based upon identifying  the work Hemdat Yamim as the source for Tu-beShevat as a holiday and eating fruit and other rituals.  Thus,…

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Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925

Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925

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Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925[*] By Shimon Szimonowitz Dov Mayani (1903-1952) A Static and Evolving Chag Lag B’Omer has infiltrated Jewish culture as a bona fide holiday. While the day is celebrated throughout the Jewish world, it tends to take on added significance in Eretz Yisrael. This age-old disparity has seen a little easement, probably as a result of enhanced communication between the Promised Land and the rest of the world, but the difference is…

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Tu Bishvat and The Symmetry Between Aesthetics and Eros

Tu Bishvat and The Symmetry Between Aesthetics and Eros

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Tu Bishvat and The Symmetry Between Aesthetics and Eros Based on a homily by R. Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz (1872-1937)[1] in Sha’ar Yessakhar, volume 2, p. 481-482 Translation[2] and Commentary by Shaul Magid Professor Shaul Magid is the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair of Jewish Studies at Indiana University. This text was originally prepared for a text-study at a Tu Bishvat Seder at Temple Emunah in Lexington, MA on January 27, 2002. Sincere thanks goes out to Gloria Greenfield…

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TU BISHVAT: TREE AND THOU

TU BISHVAT: TREE AND THOU

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TU BISHVAT: TREE AND THOU by Alan Zelenetz Rabbi Alan Zelenetz, M.Phil. has been professionally involved in Jewish education, academia, and independent scholarship for more than twenty-five years, including leadership positions as principal of Torah and General Studies of Yeshivah of Flatbush Middle Division and Director of Curriculum Development of Teachers College Innovations, Columbia University. DYNAMIC GREEN From their cosmic vantage point in outer space, NASA satellites orbiting our planet beam down real-time streaming video of Earth’s surface. They reveal…

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A Printing Mistake and the Mysterious Origins of Rashbi’s Yahrzeit*

A Printing Mistake and the Mysterious Origins of Rashbi’s Yahrzeit*

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A Printing Mistake and the Mysterious Origins of Rashbi’s Yahrzeit* by Eliezer Brodt In this post I would like to deal with tracing the early sources for the great celebrations that take place worldwide on Lag Ba-Omer, specifically at the Kever of Rashbi (R. Shimon b. Yochai) in Meron.[1] A few years back on the Seforim Blog I dealt with some of these issues (link). More recently in Ami Magazine (# 22) I returned to some of the topics. This…

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