Book Review: The Koren Sacks Bilingual Edition of the Siddur
Rabbi Elli Fischer is a freelance translator living in Modiin, Israel. He maintains the “On the Contrary: Judasim with Comments Enabled ” blog. This is his first contribution to the TraditionOnline Seforim blog. I was recently given the opportunity to preview The Koren Sacks Siddur. This work, due to be released in 2009, is the first major bilingual Orthodox synagogue prayer book to be released since the ArtScroll Siddur in 1984. It goes without saying that this siddur will present…
The Modern Custom of Standing for the Ten Commandments
Many mitvot require that one stand. One of which is reading the Torah. Thus, the ba’al koreh and the person making the blessing stand. When it comes to those who are just listening, there is a debate whether they are required to stand as well. Some hold that the listeners are required to stand while others require the listeners to stand only for the blessings, and finally others don’t there is a nearly universal custom to stand during the recitation…
A Note Regarding the Recitation of Brikh Shemei
Rabbi Yehiel Goldhaber of Jerusalem is the author of the (currently) two-volume authoritative work on the customs of the Mattersdorf Kehilla entitled Minhagei Ha-Kehillot (2004) and is at work on additional volumes, as well as on a complete history of the area and rabbonim of the Mattersdorf Kehilla. He is also completing a volume on coffee. In addition to his authoritative articles on Kabbalat Shabbat in Beit Aharon ve-Yisrael, Rabbi Goldhaber has published many articles on the topics of halakha…
Daniel J. Lasker – “December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the Umbrellas”
Daniel J. Lasker is Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, and is chair of the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought. His landmark work Jewish Philosophical Polemics against Christianity in the Middle Ages, originally published in 1977, was recently republished with a new introduction in 2007. This is Professor Lasker’s first post at the Seforim blog. We Jews in Israel have been praying for rain since the seventh of Marheshvan (the night of…
Teffilah Zakah: History of a Controversial Prayer
Teffilah Zakah: History of a Controversial Prayer* Yom Kippur has many unique prayers, many of them have been added through the centuries. For instance, R. Hayyim Yosef Dovid Azulai (Hida) has a longer viduy. Another such addition is the prayer known as Teffilah Zakah. In this prayer the person enumerates and connects their various sins with various acts and asks for forgiveness. Additionally, the person forgives any who have caused them pain or harmed them. This prayer was popularized by…
Of Tahanun and Yarhrzeit bukhs
A fascinating anecdote in a recently published biography of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel struck me as very worthy of sharing with the readers of the Seforim blog: [Heschel] confided to Samuel Dresner that in his daily devotions he did not recite the Tahanun prayer, a confession of sin and supplication that was usually omitted only on the Sabbath and festivals. Heschel explained that it was a Hasidic custom to omit these woeful entreaties on the Yahrzeit (anniversary of death) of…
Machnesi Rachamim – Praying to Angels
For those interested in the topic of the permissibility of praying to angels and the controversy surrounding this topic see the post on Machnesi Rachamim and Plagiarism which has been updated a bit and now includes some interesting scans. One scan in particular, the title page, is a case of a very elaborate and somewhat unique illustrated title page. In the next couple of days I hope to return to this topic and debunk a popular explanation regarding a well-known…
Marc Shapiro: What Do Adon Olam and ס”ט Mean?
ס”ט 1. People often refer to me as a Modern Orthodox intellectual. There are actually quite a number of us out there. If you hear someone using words like “ontological,” “existential,” “mimetic,” and now, “tergiversation” you can assume he in in our club. Also, another telltale sign is that when we give divrei Torah you will hear us refer to Philo, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha (if we are confident that we can pronounce the word properly ), Shadal, or Cassutto. Of…
Dan Rabinowitz — “The Custom of Reciting l’Dovid HaShem Ori”
From last year (with a small update) at the Seforim blog, Dan Rabinowitz’s “The Custom of Reciting l’Dovid HaShem Ori.”
No more Bentchers: A Review of a Sefer Given as a Wedding Gift
A wedding carries with it many customs, one of which is an attempt to use this ceremony to disseminate Torah. There was an old custom in many communities for people to write poems in honor of the simchas chasan and kallah. Others even wrote plays in honor of the bride and groom. One example is the Ramchal who wrote the play Ma’ashe Shimshon (as well as other poems for various weddings). In other communities there was a custom for someone…
Library of Siddur (Prayer) For Sale
A library of approximately 1,700 books all either prayer books themselves or books about prayer are for sale. These include סדורים ,קינות ,תיקון ליל שבעות as well as some manuscripts. The date range of the books range from ש’s (1540) until recent. Additionally, there are Slavita and Zhitomer prints as well. As this entire collection is devoted to a single subject – prayer, it is somewhat unusual and important. For more information (there is a complete catalog of all the…
The Perils of Ignoring Precedent: Alterations in the Kaddish Prayer
Recently there has been a renewal in interest in the structure and make up of the liturgy or siddur. While there have previously been critical editions of the siddur or articles on topics related to the siddur, today’s renaissance of the siddur has been precipitated by a different series of events. Specifically, this has been fostered by the publication and republication of some important source material on the topic; these include, among others R. Shabbetai Sofer of Przmysl’s Siddur Rav…
Yigdal: A Case Study in Modern Customology
Another blog recently raised the question about the origin of saying Yigdal at the end of services on Friday night. Specifically, they wanted to demonstrate that this custom is not a “modern” or “Young Israel” custom and instead was very old. Although in practice today, this view is perhaps the prevalent custom with most yeshivot and similar minyanim not reciting this and Young Israel and those similar do. In an attempt to refute this postion, the Hertz siddur was marshaled….
Shnayer Leiman on “A Puzzling Passage in a Book Intended for Jewish Children”
In 2004, an anonymous book entitled Serenade the King appeared in print. Addressed primarily to a young audience, it is an anthology of inspirational stories that focus on one teaching only: the importance of answering “Amen.” The stories are accompanied by photographs of the great Jewish sages mentioned in them, and by short inserts, mostly quotations from famous rabbis emphasizing the significance of answering “Amen.” Letters of approbation (in Hebrew) from distinguished rabbis appear at the beginning of the book,…