The newest version of the Talmud mss CD (the “Lieberman CD” or the “Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank”), is now available. The newest version, using the Bar Ilan Responsa interface, includes transcriptions of all known mss of Talmud, including Cairo Genizah fragments at JTS, Cambridge and Oxford as well as scans of various mss (NOT those available via JNUL) of Talmud and Mishnah. It normally sells for $750 but if five (5) individuals get together they can each…
Gil has a nice post on the latest mythmaking regarding the Hazon Ish. Along those same lines, there is a farily well known story that goes something like this: An Orthodox person is sitting in the Jewish National Library and gets hungry. He takes out his lunch and then benches however, he does so in an audible tone. In his recitation he says the words שלא נכשל לעולם ועד. The librarian who is not Orthodox comes over to complain about…
Menachem Mendel has a nice post collecting a lot of the material on the Ten commandments. However, there is one point that I think is worth discussing.While 10 Commandment displays are ubiquitous in synagogues, it is far from certain this is the correct approach. Specifically, the Talmud records that public recitations of the Ten Commandments are banned because there were those who understood these readings to mean only the Ten Commandments are important to the exclusion of the rest of…
Professor Yosef Tabori’s bibliography on synagogues is available online here. As well as other bibliographical lists here.
Mary Roach in her excellent book “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” discusses some of the facinating facts relating to dead bodies. However, she does not discuss some of the more interesting Jewish incidents of dead bodies. The first is the fairly well known story of R. Yehuda Aszod (1794-1866). R. Aszod’s grandson wrote a biography of his grandfather. Portions of this biography are included in R. Aszod’s commentary on the Torah, Divre Mahri. “My grandfather never allowed for…
Manuscriptboy has two very nice posts today. One discusses a new book and various talks connected to the book. The book is a collection of articles by Moshe Samet. Moshe Samet has written some of the best pieces most notably on the Besamim Rosh, the teshuvot that were atributed to R. Asher b. Yehiel (Rosh) but are most likely a forgery and the product of the publisher, R. Saul Berlin. Samet has also written on the R. Moshe Sofer (Hatam…
