Review of My Father’s Journey by Sara Reguer
About a year ago, Seforim Blog readers were informed by Prof. Marc Shapiro of the publication of Sara Reguer’s book My Father’s Journey, and they were further advised that this book would be of great value to anyone interested in the history of the yeshiva movement and Eastern European orthodoxy (see here). The following review illustrates the contribution the book indeed makes to these fields of study. This basis of this memoir is essentially a diary which affords readers a…
On R’ Aron Zelig Halevi Epstein Ztz”l
יג מנחם אב תשס”ט I and thousands of others suffered a great loss. Our great Rosh Yeshivah, R’ Aron Zelig Halevi Epstein of Yeshiva Shar Hatorah, was niftar. During the years 2004-2006, through the efforts of My dear friend Meir Kahn, I had the special Zechus to have many interesting conversations with the Rosh Yeshivah Ztz”l. The following is a selection of pieces from those conversations. This article originally appeared in the Hebrew Newspaper Mishpacha, in the Kulmos section for…
A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments
When I was in my early yeshiva years studying tractate Shabbos, I came across a Rashba which I found to be most intriguing. During its discussion of the first mishna, the gemara in Shabbos 4a makes the statement, “וכי אומרים לו לאדם חטא כדי שיזכה חבירך,” which means, “do we really say to a person, ‘sin in order that your friend should merit?’” A notion which suggests that a person should not sin in order that others can fulfill a…
ביאור שי’ הגר”א ביחס למנהג העמדת אילנות כו’ בחג השבועות
Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925
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 still obvious. R. Chaim Elazar Shapira of Munkács (1868-1937) states, as a point…
Dr. Shlomo Sprecher ז”ל: In Memoriam
אין חכמת האדם מגעת אלא עד מקום שספריו מגיעין, ולכן ימכור אדם כל מה שיש לו ויקנה ספרים, כי דרך משל מי שאין לו ספרי התלמוד אי איפשר לו להיות בקי בו, וכמו כן מי שאין לו ספרי הרפואה א”א להיות בקי בה. דרכי התלמוד לר’ יצחק קנפאנטון A person’s wisdom reaches only as far as his library. Therefore, a person should sell everything he owns and acquire books. For example, one who doesn’t own a set of the Talmud…
Churches, Ronald McDonald, and More
1. In a recent post I mentioned R. Leon Modena, so let me note the following. In my article on entering churches, available here, I mention that R. Modena entered churches to hear the sermons. I also quote R. Eliezer Waldenberg’s description of R. Modena as an איש הפכפך. Only after my article appeared did I find that R. Solomon Scheinfeld uses similar language in describing R. Modena : הוא היה גדול בתורה וחכמת העולם, היה גאון בטבעו, אבל כדרך…
New book announcement; He-Gedolim
הגדולים: אישים שעיצבו את פני היהדות החרדית בישראל, בעריכת בנימין בראון, נסים ליאון, קובץ מאמרים לכבוד פרופ’ מנחם פרידמן ובהשראתו, מגנס מכון ון ליר, 968 עמודים The Gdoilim: Leaders Who Shaped the Israeli Haredi Jewry, Edited by Benjamin Brown, Nissim Leon, The Hebrew University Magnes Press, Van Leer Institute, 968 pages For the most part, academic books are not found or read in regular “layman” or Chareidi circles, nor are those types of books available at most “seforim stores.” From…
Dean of Historians of Jewish Philosophy: Necrology for Professor Arthur Hyman (1921-2017)
Emeritus in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he has taught since 1977. He studied philosophy at Columbia University, writing his PhD dissertation under Arthur Hyman. He has written prolifically on medieval and modern Jewish philosophers, e.g. Maimonides, Crescas, and Spinoza. Among his publications is Physics and Metaphysics in Hasdai Crescas (1998). He is an EMET Prize laureate in the Humanities (2009). This is his first contribution to the Seforim Blog. Arthur Hyman, 1921-2017…
R. Hershel Schachter, Gedolim, Rachel Morpurgo, and More
1. In listening to a recent shiur on Daas Torah by R. Hershel Schachter, I found a number of noteworthy comments. In this shiur, which has been heard thousands of times, R. Schachter states, “If you have an outlook, if you have what I would consider a crooked, a krum outlook on Yom ha-Atzmaut, then your outlook on eruvin is also crooked. I can’t rely on anything that you say.” I find this difficult to accept, since can’t someone be…
A Note on the הסכמות of the חפץ חיים
All the comments to the previous posting (“A Note on R. Bezalel Alexandrov’s משכן בצלאל and its Prenumeranten”) are deeply appreciated. It’s what makes the Seforim Blog required reading for anyone interested in serious scholarship. I cannot possibly address all the comments. The references in the notes to the essay address some of the issues raised. To Yisrael Dubitsky’s important comments, one should add that privately owned copies of the two parts of משכן בצלאל are available, at the very…
עוד שמועות נדירות, ופנינים וסיפרים מדור שעבר ששמעתי ממו”ר הרב שמרי’ שולמאן שליט”א בעמ”ס באר שרים ועוד, ומשיירי כנסת הגדולה
Rabbi Chaim Volozhin’s Motivation to Write Nefesh HaChaim
Avinoam Fraenkel’s new 2 volume work, Nefesh HaTzimtzum (Urim Publications), is a full facing page translation and extensive commentary on Nefesh HaChaim together with all related writings by R. Chaim Volozhin. It also presents a groundbreaking study on the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum which is demonstrated to be the key principle underpinning all of Nefesh HaChaim. The following essay captures some of the key insights in overview from Nefesh HaTzimtzum which should be referred to for in-depth details and sources….
Some Recollections of R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, Love Before Marriage, and More
1. In my last post I mentioned R. Nosson Zvi Finkel, the Alter of Slobodka, so let me add the following. There is a transcript of a 1965 taped conversation between R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg and R. Yaakov Herzog. Herzog had come to Montreux to speak to R. Weinberg, and here is a picture from that meeting which appears in Michael Bar-Zohar, Yaacov Herzog: A Biography. R. Weinberg, who knew R. Finkel very well, stated as follows. הרב ויינברג: דער…