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Category: Prayers

Bibliography, Why It’s Important

Bibliography, Why It’s Important

In Professor Daniel Sperber’s latest book, Netivot Pesikah (Jerusalem, Reuven Mass, 2008), one of the areas he discusses the importance of having an awareness of is bibliography. As Eliezer Brodt noted in his review at the Seforim blog, Sperber provides examples where people have gone wrong due to their lack of bibliographical knowledge. Of course, long before Sperber, the importance of Jewish bibliography was already noted by R. Shabbatai Bass, most well-known for his super-commentary on Rashi, Siftei Hakahmim, but…

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An Attack and Defense of the ArtScroll Talmud and Addendum to the Dec. 2007 Book List

An Attack and Defense of the ArtScroll Talmud and Addendum to the Dec. 2007 Book List

Ohr Yisrael no. 50 (Tevet, 5768); 256 pages. The new issue of Ohr Yisrael, no. 50. has a couple of articles I wanted to highlight. First, they have a section devoted to essentially whether the ArtScroll Gemara is a good thing or not. While in the United States the English version has been around for awhile, only recently has the Hebrew edition been on the market and it appears that it is very popular. Thus, there are those who are…

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Daniel J. Lasker – “December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the Umbrellas”

Daniel J. Lasker – “December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the Umbrellas”

December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the UmbrellasBy Daniel J. Lasker 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…

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Marc Shapiro: What Do Adon Olam and ס”ט Mean?

Marc Shapiro: What Do Adon Olam and ס”ט Mean?

What Do Adon Olam and ס”ט Mean ? [1] by By Marc B. Shapiro 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”[2] 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…

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The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction?

The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction?

The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fictionby Eliezer Brodt Among the more famous kinos that we recite on Tisha B’Av is Zion Halo Tishali. This kinah was written by one of the greatest paytanim, R. Yehudah Halevi author of the classic Kuzari. This piyut is about the author’s passion to walk on the holy soil of Eretz Yisrael. In the Artscroll commentary on the kinos, R. Avraham Chaim Feuer writes an ancient manuscript states that R. Yehuda…

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