Academic Jewish Studies – Page 2 – The Seforim Blog

Reply from Haym Soloveitchik to the JQR Interview with Robert Brody

August 27, 2019 Haym Soloveitchik Comments 103 comments

Editor’s Note: As a recap of a recent exchange between two scholars on a nuanced debate within medieval Jewish history (see the first footnote), we present this final note by Professor Haym Soloveitchik. Part One Dr. Robert Brody advances no new arguments against my thesis in his recent interview at the blog of the Jewish Quarterly Review (https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/blog/jewish-quarterly-review/jqr-contributor-conversation-robert-brody-origins-talmud-study). I have addressed all his points in my original essay and my reply in the Jewish Quarterly Review and online on my…

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Message from Professor Haym Soloveitchik

May 16, 2019 Dan Rabinowitz Comments 10 comments

In the newly-published issue of the Jewish Quartlerly Review (Spring 109:2), there is an exchange between Robert Brody and Haym Soloveitchik on the “Third Yeshivah of Bavel” (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/40354). Professor Soloveitchik’s reply is in two parts: Part I in JQR and the continuation–Part II– on his website.. At the conclusion of his reply in JQR, he refers the readers to Part II on his website: “Those interested in my replies to all of Brody’s other objections can turn to my website,…

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Two Jewish Temples in Egypt

January 12, 2019 Reuven Chaim Klein Comments 9 comments

is the author of the newly-released work God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry (Mosaica Press, 2018). His book follows the narrative of Tanakh and focuses on the stories concerning Avodah Zarah using both traditional and academic sources. It also includes an encyclopedia of all the different types of idolatry mentioned in the Bible. Rabbi Klein studied for over a decade at the premier institutes of the Hareidi world, including Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood and Yeshivas Mir…

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A Conversation With Professor Marcin Wodziński on Hasidism

September 2, 2018 Yitzchok Frankfurter Comments 0 Comment

This article appeared in Ami Magazine July 11, 2018/ 28 Tamuz 5778 and is reprinted here with permission. This is not my first conversation with the Polish scholar Marcin Wodzinski. In 2013, following the release of his book on chasidism and politics, he visited my office together with the well-known askan Reb Duvid Singer. Today as then, my conversation with him elicits paradoxical emotions. His knowledge of chasidism, particularly its roots and subsequent development, is shockingly broad. In fact, many…

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Book Announcement

July 25, 2018 Eliezer Brodt Comments 0 Comment

ספרות חז”ל הארץ-ישראלית, מבואות ומחקרים, המערכת מנחם כהנא, ורד נעם, מנחם קיסטר, דוד רוזנטל, ב’ חלקים, 732 עמודים. I am very happy to announce the publication of an important work which numerous people will find very useful. This is a collection essays from various experts in the field of Chazal’s Eretz Yisrael Literature. If one wants a proper introduction to various works of Chazal from the Mishna and on, this is the place to look Up until now there were…

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כעומד לפני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies

March 26, 2018 Shaul Seidler-Feller Comments 0 Comment

posheter yid and an oved Hashem; the rest is commentary. This is his third contribution to the Seforim blog; for his previous articles, see here and here. This post has been generously sponsored le-illui nishmat Sima Belah bat Aryeh Leib, z”l. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein enthusiasts might be surprised to learn that there was a time when the rosh yeshivah, zts”l, lectured publicly in Yiddish. I myself had no idea that this was the case until my dear friend, Reb Menachem…

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Ancient Jewish Poetry & the Amazing World of Piyut: Interview with Professor Shulamit Elizur

November 20, 2017 Shulamit Elizur Comments 2 comments

explores the Cairo Genizah and other obscure places for hidden gems BY BATSHEVA SASSOON Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so G-d surrounds his people, from now to all eternity —Tehillim 125:2 This piece originally appeared in14 TISHREI 5778 // OCTOBER 4, 2017 // AMI MAGAZINE #337 Thanks to Ami for permission to publish this here.This version is updated with a few corrections and additions Inside the Old City of Jerusalem one cannot see the mountains that surround it, only…

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Some New books

August 8, 2017 Eliezer Brodt Comments 2 comments

This week is the Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies at the Mount Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Here is a link to all the lectures that are taking place. In honor of this Congress many academic publishers have released various titles in the past few weeks. There is also a small book fair at the congress where the books are being sold at reduced prices. Here is a list of some of the newer titles. For…

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Dean of Historians of Jewish Philosophy: Necrology for Professor Arthur Hyman (1921-2017)

February 21, 2017 Warren Zev Harvey Comments 0 Comment

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…

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Hitzei Giborim, Tzitzit, and R. Meir Mazuz

October 14, 2016 Marc B. Shapiro Comments 3 comments

1. In 1969 the journal Moriah appeared, published by Makhon Yerushalayim. From its beginning, this journal published manuscript material from geonim, rishonim, and aharonim, together with Torah articles by contemporary scholars. This created a model that was later followed by a number of other journals. It also became a model for how to publish memorial volumes, as these generally also contain a section of material published from manuscript. Together with the interest in manuscripts, there has developed what can only…

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New book by Gabriel Wasserman on Karaite Judaism

September 26, 2016 Dan Rabinowitz Comments 2 comments

Royal Attire: On Karaite and Rabbanite Beliefs by Hakham Mordecai ben Nisan The Karaites are a Jewish group who have been important for centuries of Jewish history, wrote many writings, and are a still extant minority today. Yet most people never get to hear much about them, especially not in their own words. When people in a typical rabbinic beth midrash encounter them, it is often in statements such as that of the Mishna Berura (27:33), that wearing tefillin down…

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Torah Under Wraps

July 27, 2016 Yoav Sorek Comments 1 comment

Their publications are not allowed to get out. Their roiling Internet forums are blocked by filters. The articles they publish omit the names of professors considered verboten. A cohort of Haredi scholars challenge the academy and their natural surroundings, unafraid to deal with subjects deemed taboo in the yeshiva world. Few Religious Zionists have penetrated this alternative ivory tower, but one of them—Eitam Henkin, may his blood be avenged—succeeded in breaking down barriers. * “One needs to strengthen oneself with…

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Review of James A. Diamond, “Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon” (2014) by Menachem Kellner

October 9, 2015 Menachem Kellner Comments 0 Comment

is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem, and the Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, where, among many other posts, he served as Dean of Students and Chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations, and founding director of Be-Zavta, a program in Jewish enrichment. His most recent book is Menachem Kellner: Jewish Universalism, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron Hughes in Brill’s Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, and…

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Dorshei Yichudcha: A Portrait of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson

July 21, 2015 Joey Rosenfeld Comments 3 comments

psychotherapist in St. Louis where he recently moved with his family. He recently published his first sefer, sc’hok d’yitzchak on the Kabbalistic theme butzina d’kardinusa, or darkened light. More of his writing can be found online at Residual Speech. לאו כל מוחא סביל דא Tasked with the formidable project of recounting Franz Rosenzweig’s life, Emmanuel Levinas apologized in advance for speaking, as well, about Rosenzweig’s opus, The Star of Redemption. The reason for this, Levinas wrote, was not due to…

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The Princess and I: Academic Kabbalists/Kabbalist Academics

May 6, 2015 Josh Rosenfeld Comments 18 comments

Assistant Rabbi at Lincoln Square Synagogue and on the Judaic Studies Faculty at SAR High School. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. His first essay, on “The Nazir in New York,” is available (here). The last few decades have witnessed the veritable explosion of “new perspectives” and horizons in the academic study of Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism. From the pioneering work of the late Professor Gershom Scholem, and the establishment of the study of Jewish Mysticism as…

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