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Category: Gedolim: Biography & Hagiography

‘Masa’ot Yerushalayim’ and the ‘Sabba Kaddisha’ R. Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari

‘Masa’ot Yerushalayim’ and the ‘Sabba Kaddisha’ R. Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari

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‘Masa’ot Yerushalayim’ and the ‘Sabba  Kaddisha’ R. Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari By: Moshe Maimon One of the greatest and most unique Torah scholars, Sephardic or otherwise, of the past 100 years was R. Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari . His life spanned about a century[1] and his prolific rabbinic career included stints in Istanbul, Damascus, Safed and Jerusalem. Besides for being an outstanding scholar with a near-photographic memory he was also extremely diligent and was a prodigious writer of responsa and novellae. Additionally, he…

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A Letter from R. Nathan Kamenetsky

A Letter from R. Nathan Kamenetsky

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A Letter from R. Nathan Kamenetsky In response to my last post on the Seforim Blog, R. Nathan Kamenetsky sent me a long e-mail. Because of its value to those with an interest in the Lithuanian Torah world, I asked Rabbi Kamenetsky for permission to post it here, and he graciously agreed – Marc Shapiro The central figure, albeit a mostly passive one, in the story I shall tell below is R’ Maisheh Finkel, one of the twin sons who…

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Megillat Sefer Translation: A Review By Pini Dunner

Megillat Sefer Translation: A Review By Pini Dunner

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Megillat Sefer Translation: A ReviewBy Pini Dunner Rabbi Pini Dunner is a scion of one of Europe’s preeminent rabbinic families. He studied at various yeshivot and then graduated University College London with a degree in Jewish History. Best known as the founding rabbi of the trailblazing Saatchi Synagogue in London’s West End, he is also a prominent collector of, and expert on, antiquarian Hebrew books and manuscripts, and is frequently consulted by libraries, book dealers, and private collectors. In Summer…

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New Seforim, books, random comments and Benny Brown’s Work on the Chazon Ish

New Seforim, books, random comments and Benny Brown’s Work on the Chazon Ish

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New Seforim, books, random comments and Benny Brown’s Work on the Chazon Ish.By Eliezer Brodt As a courtesy to our readers, below I provide a list of some new seforim and books that I recently have purchased or become aware of. Some are brand-new, others have been out already for a few months. Some of these books, will be reviewed at great length at a later date, B”n. As I note, I have copies of the TOC of some of…

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The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction & the Cairo Genizah

The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction & the Cairo Genizah

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The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction & the Cairo Genizahby Eliezer Brodt A few years ago on the Seforim Blog I dealt with the famous legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s death (link). More recently in Ami Magazine (# 32) I returned to this legend and related topics. This post contains new information as well as corrections that were not included in those earlier articles. R. Yehuda Halevi was born in the year 1075 in Toledo, Spain,…

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Pashkevilin and Benny Brown’s New Book on The Hazon Ish

Pashkevilin and Benny Brown’s New Book on The Hazon Ish

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[cross-posted at the Michtavim blog] Following the internal self-destructive collapse of the proverbial ghetto walls within Jewish communities around the world, the actual walls of Jerusalem continue to be adorned with elaborate pashkevilin, broadsides, and as The Satmar Rebbe, the late Reb Yoel Teitelbaum, zy”a, once allegedly offered a deep philosophical preach: ‘Meah Shearim is sustained by the pashkevilin on her walls.’ Recent scholarship on these broadsides has been offered by Benjamin Brown, “The Socio-Religious Texture of the Meah Shearim…

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Satmar From As Seen By An Insider: A Review of the New English Biography of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe

Satmar From As Seen By An Insider: A Review of the New English Biography of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe

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Satmar From As Seen By An Insider: A Review of the New English Biography of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe by Ezra Brand I recently bought the new biography of the Satmar Rebbe, called “The Rebbe. The Extraordinary Life & Worldview of Rabbeinu Yoel Teitelbaum. The Satmar Rebbe זי”ע”, by Rabbi Dovid Meisels (Canada 2011, distributed by Israel Book Shop). Rabbi Meisels is related to Rabbi Teitelbaum, and a staunch Satmar chossid, so you can be sure that the…

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Ariel Evan Mayse – Kindler of Hearts and Illuminator of Letters

Ariel Evan Mayse – Kindler of Hearts and Illuminator of Letters

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Kindler of Hearts and Illuminator of Letters: An Essay in Memory of Reb Levi Yitzhak ben Sara Sasha of Berdyczów by Ariel Evan Mayse For my wife Adina, whose illuminating words never fail to inspire. Relatively few Hasidic masters have enjoyed the enormous and enduring popularity of Reb Levi Yitzhak ben Sara Sasha of Berdyczów (1740-1809), perhaps with the exception of the Ba’al Shem Tov himself. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present day, written texts and…

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Dovid Bashevkin – Perpetual Prophecy: An Intellectual Tribute to Reb Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin on his 110th Yahrzeit

Dovid Bashevkin – Perpetual Prophecy: An Intellectual Tribute to Reb Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin on his 110th Yahrzeit

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Perpetual Prophecy: An Intellectual Tribute to Reb Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin on his 110th Yahrzeit by Dovid Bashevkin Reb Zadok ha-Kohen Rabinowitz of Lublin (hereafter: “Reb Zadok”) was born in 1823 into a noted rabbinic family. From a young age, we are told, he displayed signs of astonishing genius.[1] While many of these stories are questionable, it is evident that by the time he celebrated his bar mitzvah he was extremely thoroughly familiar with the standard rabbinic corpus and could…

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Censorship: The Autobiography of R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz, ADeReT

Censorship: The Autobiography of R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz, ADeReT

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Censorship: The Autobiography of R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz, ADeReT There are a handful of rabbinic autobiographies, R. Yehuda Areyeh of Modena, Hayyei Yehudah, R. Yaakov Emden, Megillat Sefer, and a few others.[1]  One of the more recent rabbinic autobiographies is that of R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz, otherwise known as Aderet.  This work, was first published in the journal, Ha-Peles edited by Aderet’s nephew, Eliyahu Akiva Rabinowitz.  Only a portion of the autobiography appears in Ha-Peles. However, the editor did give us…

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Further Comments by Marc Shapiro

Further Comments by Marc Shapiro

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Further Comments By Marc B. Shapiro I had thought that this would be my last post of the current batch, but it turned out to be too long. So I have divided it into two parts. Here is part no. 1. The volumes Shomrei Mishmeret ha-Kodesh, by R. Natan Raphael Auerbach, have just appeared. Here is the cover. This book is devoted to the Auerbach family, which was one of the great rabbinic families in Germany. They were the “A” in…

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The Writings of R. Hayyim Gulevsky, Part 2

The Writings of R. Hayyim Gulevsky, Part 2

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The Writings of R. Hayyim Gulevsky, part 2 By Marc B. Shapiro Many of the stories Gulevsky tells cannot be verified, and we have to take his word that he is faithfully recording that which he heard. Thus, he tells us about R. Abraham Eliezer Alperstein, who was an early rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat R Yitzhak Elhanan and the author of the first commentary on the Talmud published in the United States. It appeared in Chicago in 1887. Gulevsky tells the…

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The Writings of R. Hayyim Dov Ber Gulevsky – Part I

The Writings of R. Hayyim Dov Ber Gulevsky – Part I

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The Writings of R. Hayyim Dov Ber Gulevsky – Part I By Marc B. Shapiro               In honor of Dan Rabinowitz, in appreciation of his commitment to the free and open exchange of ideas. In a previous post I mentioned the new writings of R. Kook and also the works of R. Hayyim Dov Ber Gulevsky. I would like to speak about both of them before returning to my discussions of Judaism and Christianity.   Let me begin with R….

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Tevie Kagan: The Enigmatic R. David Lida Part II

Tevie Kagan: The Enigmatic R. David Lida Part II

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The Enigmatic R. David Lida Part II by Tevie Kagan R. David of Lida and Sabbateanism The case for Sabbatean leanings in R. David ben Aryeh Leib of Lida’s works are somewhat cloudy. The first clear accusation in this regard is from R. Yaakov Emden in his Toras Hakanaos. [1]Specifically, R. Emden, dealt with the conclusion of one of Lida’s poem’s entitled Shir Hillulim, which was printed with his Migdol David. Shir Hillulim was written in honor of a torah…

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Rabbis &amp: History A Review of the Koreh HaDorot, Ahavat Shalom ed

Rabbis &amp: History A Review of the Koreh HaDorot, Ahavat Shalom ed

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Rabbis & History: A Review of the Koreh HaDorot, Ahavat Shalom ed. by Eliezer Brodt  This is the first post in what I hope to be a series on various attitudes towards studying history.  The prism through which we will examine this issue is that of the many works written by gedolim discussing history.  The subject of this post is a new edition of the classic work Koreh Hadoros (KH) by R. Dovid Conforte (printed recently by Ahavat Sholom).  After discussing…

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