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Category: Censorship & Bowdlerization

The Vanishing Note: Devorah, Women Dayanim, and a Missing הערה‎ in Hilchos Dayyanus

The Vanishing Note: Devorah, Women Dayanim, and a Missing הערה‎ in Hilchos Dayyanus

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Whilst learning siman ז of Choshen Mishpat with my chavrusa, we found ourselves reading two different books. We were each using the Machon Yerushalayim edition of the Tur, we were on the same page, and we were looking at the same footnote — note ל״ב of the הגהות והערות. But my chavrusa’s note said almost nothing, and mine went on for some length. A comparison of title pages explained the discrepancy: I was working from the edition of תשנ”ג (1992/93),…

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Can Orthodoxy Decide Its Own History?

Can Orthodoxy Decide Its Own History?

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In his 2004 review of Rabbi Nosson Kamenetsky’s controversy-sparking Making of a Godol, Professor Mordechai Breuer notes a marked change happening within haredi culture, specifically book culture: The contents of the traditional Haredi bookshelf have expanded and transformed beyond recognition in recent generations. Alongside … the rabbinic classics … the shelves are now filled with books of types our ancestors could not have imagined. Breuer is referring to the proliferation of a new form of biography, or hagiography, of gedolim,…

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Rav Gorelick, the Rav, and Revision by Omission

Rav Gorelick, the Rav, and Revision by Omission

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Many readers of the Seforim Blog no doubt remember Dr. Shapiro’s post from 2009, in which he documented a back-and-forth from the pages of the journal Or Yisrael, regarding whether Rav Yerucham Gorelick zt”l taught Gemara at Yeshiva University. As a refresher, Or Yisrael (Num. 50, Tevet 5768, p. 39) published a summary of a shiur given by Rav Mordechai Leib Gorelick (son of Rav Yerucham), regarding the publication of the Talmud with translation and elucidation (presumably referring to Artscroll)….

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To Censor or Not to Censor, that is the Question

To Censor or Not to Censor, that is the Question

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Legacy Auction’s latest auction will take place on March 26, 2020. Their catalog provides us the opportunity to discuss a few items of interest to bibliophiles. There are many examples of the phenomenon of censoring or declaring forgeries of teshuvot and other halakhic rulings especially when those rulings are contrary to contemporary practices. Nonetheless, there is at least one example where the urge to suppress contrary halakhic rulings was rejected. R. Yehiel Mikhel Halevi Epstein of Novogrudok is most well-known…

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For the Sake of Radin! The Sugar Magnate’s Missing Yarmulke and a Zionist Revision

For the Sake of Radin! The Sugar Magnate’s Missing Yarmulke and a Zionist Revision

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Israel Brodsky (1823-1888), built an empire on the sugar trade. After inheriting a substantial fortune, in 1843, he became a partner in a sugar refinery. Eventually, he vertically integrated his business, and he controlled sugar beet lands, processing plants, refineries, marketing agencies, and warehouses throughout the Russian Empire. At its height, Brodsky controlled a quarter of all sugar production in the Empire and employed 10,000 people. Brodsky sugar “was a household name from Tiflis to Bukhara to Vladivostok.” Brodsky was…

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The Satmar Rebbe and a Censored Mishnah Berurah, and R. Baruch Rabinovich of Munkács

The Satmar Rebbe and a Censored Mishnah Berurah, and R. Baruch Rabinovich of Munkács

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1. In my recent interview in Der Veker, available here, I said that I hope to discuss how the Satmar Rebbe was mistaken in identifying a Zionist censorship in the Mishnah Berurah. In Ha-Maor, Elul 5716, p. 30, M. Abramson tells the following story that appears under the heading על זיוף המשנה ברורה. The Satmar Rebbe was away from home and asked his assistant, R. Joseph Ashkenazi (who is the source of the story), to bring him a book. Ashkenazi…

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Some New Seforim, Books, R’ Eleazar Fleckeles, R’ Naftali Herz Weisel, Frankism and (of course) Censorship, Pt. I

Some New Seforim, Books, R’ Eleazar Fleckeles, R’ Naftali Herz Weisel, Frankism and (of course) Censorship, Pt. I

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It’s been awhile since I posted a list of new seforim. I hope to post an updated list of a few hundred titles within the next few weeks. In this post I want to focus on a few new titles that, aside for being new, all have a connection to one topic. This is also an update to some earlier posts relating to this topic. As a bochur about twenty years ago, I came across a small sefer called Olas…

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Altering of Rabbinic Texts?, Shlomo Rechnitz and the Eighth Principle of Faith, R. Yair Hayyim Bacharach, the Ridbaz and “Chemistry,” and R. Yitzhak Barda

Altering of Rabbinic Texts?, Shlomo Rechnitz and the Eighth Principle of Faith, R. Yair Hayyim Bacharach, the Ridbaz and “Chemistry,” and R. Yitzhak Barda

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1. People continue to send me examples of censorship and altering of texts. If I would discuss all of them, I would have no time for other matters, but I do intend to get to some of these examples. Let me also share an “updating” of a classic rabbinic text that I discovered on my own in the old fashioned way. This is one of those examples that I wish I knew about when I wrote my book. It is…

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Text Manipulation on the Left – A Recent Incident

Text Manipulation on the Left – A Recent Incident

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We have seen on this blog several posts that cite examples of censorship and text manipulation in literature within the Orthodox community. Generally, the practitioners of this tendentious editing have been described here as being among our brethren from the right wing of the community. However, the act of text manipulation happens as well among our brethren from the left wing. One notable example occurred recently in an article that discussed the theory of evolution. The article, Nathan Aviezer’s “The…

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The Agunah Problem, part 2; Wearing a Kippah; More Censorship by ArtScroll

The Agunah Problem, part 2; Wearing a Kippah; More Censorship by ArtScroll

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1. Continued from here. There is even an opinion, which as far as I know is accepted by many, that if a man apostatizes the beit din can still not force him to issue a divorce. This is first mentioned by R. Meir of Rothenburg and his reason is quite surprising. He says that a woman would rather be married to an apostate than not married at all. כתב מורי רבינו עובר על דת או אפילו משומד אין כופין אותו…

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Maimonides and Prophecy, R. Pinhas Lintop, R. José Faur, and More Examples of Censorship

Maimonides and Prophecy, R. Pinhas Lintop, R. José Faur, and More Examples of Censorship

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1. In my last post here I discussed whether Maimonides believed that the entire people of Israel experienced prophecy at Mt. Sinai. I neglected to refer to Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah 8:3, which states: לפי שנבואת משה רבנו אינה על פי האותות כדי שנערוך אותות זה לאותות זה, אלא בעינינו ראינוה ובאזנינו שמענוה כמו ששמע הוא This is one of those passages that presents problems for the interpreter, since what Maimonides says in the Mishneh Torah, that all Israel experienced prophecy…

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R. Zevin, R. Ovadia Yosef, Pras haRav Kook and a Minor Case of Censorship

R. Zevin, R. Ovadia Yosef, Pras haRav Kook and a Minor Case of Censorship

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end of R. Zevin’s introduction to his Sofrim u-Sefarim we read – In R. Zevin’s footnote we see that one of the works that he wanted to review but didn’t yet get to was R. Ovadia Yosef’s two volumes of Yabia Omer. As someone who enjoys R. Zevin’s pen immensely (both his style and substance, especially the way he analyzes books and their authors) , and as someone that studies from R. Ovadia Yosef’s prolific halakhic literature quite often, I…

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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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