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Category: Talmud Editions & Commentaries

“Did The Bach Really Draw a Cow?” Eruvin 20 b – Hagahot HaBach on Rashi “הא אתמר עלה”

“Did The Bach Really Draw a Cow?” Eruvin 20 b – Hagahot HaBach on Rashi “הא אתמר עלה”

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The diagram in the first edition of the Bach (1824) is much more accurate than how it is depicted in later editions, especially the Vilna Shas. The Bach’s picture features a long feeding trough, (an אבוס), whereas Vilna and others show it looking more like something attached to the animal. The Zhitomir Shas compounds the error by leaving out an essential characteristic of the situation under discussion. The new editions of the Talmud get it much better. The one diagram…

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An “Artscroll”™ Illustration in the Vilna Shas-Masechet Shabbat 98b

An “Artscroll”™ Illustration in the Vilna Shas-Masechet Shabbat 98b

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לזכר נשמת אבי מורי ר׳ יעקב קאפל בר׳ משה יהודה הלוי גענויער ז״ל. היארצייט שלו י״ד סיון. For those studying Daf Yomi this week, there is a unique diagram that appears on Shabbat 98b. In the Vilna Shas one can see a closeup “picture” of one of the boards of the Mishkan (“קרש”) which would make Artscroll proud. While one might be familiar with diagrams that appear in the Talmud, those diagrams illustrate comments in the rishonim, mainly Rashi. Most…

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The Maharsha’s Map of Yerushalayim – A Taus Sofer? Berakhot 61b

The Maharsha’s Map of Yerushalayim – A Taus Sofer? Berakhot 61b

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“ברכות סא: “הנפנה ביהודה רש”י – ירושלים בארץ יהודה היא בצפונה של ארץ יהודה בגבול שבין יהודה לבנימין By Eli Genauer תנו רבנן, הנפנה ביהודה לא יפנה מזרח ומערב אלא צפון ודרום, ובגליל לא יפנה אלא מזרח ומערב. ורבי יוסי מתיר, שהיה רבי יוסי אומר לא אסרו אלא ברואה ובמקום שאין שם גדר ובזמן שהשכינה שורה. וחכמים אוסרים Explanation of Rabbi Steinsaltz per Sefaria, the William Davidson edition of the Talmud In this context, the Sages taught: One who defecates…

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Review of Mada Toratekha: Studying Gemara in Broad-based Depth 

Review of Mada Toratekha: Studying Gemara in Broad-based Depth 

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Review of Mada Toratekha Rav Yehuda Zoldan: Studying Gemara in Broad-based Depth ר’ יהודה ברנדס מדע תורתך מסכת ברכות, מכללת הרצוג, אלון שבות תשעט The Following post is a short review on a new work from Rabbi Professor Yehuda Brandes on Berakhot. For another recent article of Rabbi Brandes about Learning Gemara see this issue of Hakirah. For a sample chapter of this new work or to purchase this work email Eliezerbrodt@gmail.com Over the years, a variety of different styles…

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New Notes Added in the Koren Talmud Bavli

New Notes Added in the Koren Talmud Bavli

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I would like to thank Chaim Katz for his close reading of the Koren Talmud Bavli, focusing on the new notes that were added in Tractate Berakhot, which he shared in a recent post on the Seforim Blog. His post offers an opportunity to share some of the background to the changes in the new English edition as compared to the original Steinsaltz Talmud Hebrew edition. Perhaps the most important thing to clarify is the thinking that went into the…

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Berakhot Koren Talmud Bavli and Ein Aya

Berakhot Koren Talmud Bavli and Ein Aya

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Berakhot Koren Talmud Bavli (KE) is a translation (into English) of Rav Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz’s Hebrew edition of tractate Berakhot. It comprises the text of the Talmud, the in-line commentary, the explanation of foreign words, the mini-studies (iyunim), the biographies of selected sages, the description of cultural objects (hahayim), descriptions of fauna and flora and more. As far as I’ve noticed, they never mention in the front matter nor in the advertising blurbs that they added informational notes that don’t…

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A Compromise in Halacha – On Menachot 33a

A Compromise in Halacha – On Menachot 33a

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A common D’var Torah delivered at a wedding goes something like this: “Dear Chatan and Kallah. You are standing beneath a Chupah which is representative of the home you will build within the Jewish people. When you walk into your home, you will notice that that Mezuzah is placed in a diagonal position on the doorpost. There is a disagreement between Rashi and his grandson Rabbeinu Tam as to whether the Mezuzah should be affixed in a vertical or horizontal…

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Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts

Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts

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Approbations designed to protect the investment of printers and their sponsors when publishing a large work such as the Talmud were well intentioned. Unfortunately, the results were counter-productive, resulting in acrimonious disputes between publishers within and between cities. This article discusses the first approbations, issued for the Frankfurt on the Oder Talmud (1697-99), and the resulting dispute with printers in Amsterdam in 1714-17. The background of the presses and the pressmarks utilized by the printers are discussed, giving a fuller…

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The Strange Shape of the Marcheshet Pan

The Strange Shape of the Marcheshet Pan

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“The underlying basis of our work is that pictures are an organic part of the commentary, and it possible that Rashi even allowed himself to limit his explanatory words when a picture was available to the reader. This is in the sense of “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The picture is an integral part of the written book, no less important than the words.” Dr Ezra Chwat Department of Manuscripts, National Library of Israel Giluy Milta B’Almah Blog…

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An Obscure Diagram in the Bomberg Shas

An Obscure Diagram in the Bomberg Shas

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AUCTION 65: JUNE 25TH, 2015 LOT: 111 (TALMUD, BABYLONIAN). Masechta Sotah. With commentaries by Rashi, Tosaphoth, Maimonides and Rabbeinu Asher. FIRST BOMBERG EDITION .. ……Vinograd, Venice 27; Habermann, Bomberg 22. Daniel Bomberg, Venice: 1520. This Tractate contains the only appearance of a printed text illustration throughout the entire Talmud issued by Bomberg (see f. 43r). The reference to ( see f.43r ) indicates that this singular printed diagram in the Bomberg Shas appears on Daf 43A in Sotah. It is…

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על שיבושי הצנזורה שנמצאים בהדפסות החדשות של התלמוד

על שיבושי הצנזורה שנמצאים בהדפסות החדשות של התלמוד

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אב”ד הבד”צ דקהילות החרדים דבודאפעסט ורב דקהילת חברה ש”ס – ליובאוויטש בהמשך לרשימה שהופיעה ב’ספרים-בלוג’ אודות הצנזורה הנני מפרסם כאן מתוך מה שרשמתי בענין. הצנזורה בתלמוד מאז ‘דפוס באסיליאה’ לפני קרוב לארבע מאות וחמשים שנה, בשנים של”ח-שמ”א, נדפסה התלמוד הבבלי בעיר בזל שבשוצריה. ש”ס זה ידוע בשם ‘דפוס באסיליאה’ של הנוצרי אמברוסיאו פרוביאנו. מהדורה זו נדפסה על-פי ביקורת הצנזור מארקו מארינו, וזה השחית את תוכן המסכתות במאות מקומות. מסכת עבודה זרה לא הדפיסו כלל – והטעם מובן. הדפוסים הבאים נמשכו…

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Book Review: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s Minchat Aviv

Book Review: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s Minchat Aviv

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Minchat Aviv: Studies in Talmudic Topics (Hebrew) HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein Editor: Rav Elyakim Krumbein Jerusalem: Maggid Books and Yeshivat Har Etzion, 2014 xvi + 659 pages; source and subject indexes Available here. A person must exert considerable effort before producing words of Torah and wisdom. Toiling in Torah can be compared to toil in working the land: one must plow and sow, irrigate and fertilize, hoe and aerate, develop and cultivate, harvest and gather. Only after one completes all these…

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A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study

A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study

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The following is an excerpt from an article with the above title by Joseph Ringel. The full article, including the footnotes detailing the source materials, and the appendix, have been published in the Fall 2013 issue of Tradition (46:3), and is available for purchase at http://www.traditiononline.org/. In recent years, scholars have taken a renewed interest in elucidating the specific methods used to study Jewish texts in yeshivas, both past and present. For example, Daniel Boyarin elucidated the classical late medieval/early…

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Deciphering the Talmud: The First English Edition of the Talmud Revisited. Michael Levi Rodkinson: His Translation of the Talmud, and the Ensuing Controversy

Deciphering the Talmud: The First English Edition of the Talmud Revisited. Michael Levi Rodkinson: His Translation of the Talmud, and the Ensuing Controversy

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’s new book, Further Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (Leiden, 2013), the Seforim Blog is happy to present this abridgment of chapter 13. Deciphering the Talmud: The First English Edition of the Talmud Revisited. Michael Levi Rodkinson: His Translation of the Talmud, and the Ensuing Controversy Marvin J. Heller The Talmud, the quintessential Jewish book, is a challenging work. A source of Bible interpretation, halakhah, ethical values, and ontology, often described as a sea, it is…

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