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Contributor: Chaim Katz

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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The Yom Tov Lecture of R. Eliezer Hagadol

The Yom Tov Lecture of R. Eliezer Hagadol

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Rabbis taught in a baraita: R. Eliezer was sitting and lecturing about the laws of the festivals the entire day. A first group left and he said: these people own pithoi (huge storage containers). A second group left and he said: these people own amphorae (smaller storage containers). A third group left . . . A forth group left . . . A fifth group . . . When a sixth group started to leave. . . He looked towards…

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Rabbi Zeira – Forgetting the Teachings of Babylon

Rabbi Zeira – Forgetting the Teachings of Babylon

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We read in the Talmud (Baba Metziah 85a): R. Zeira, when he moved to the land of Israel, observed a hundred fasts to forget the teachings of Babylonia, so that they should not disturb him. He fasted another hundred times so that R. Elazar should not die during his years and the responsibilities of the community not fall upon him.He fasted another hundred times so that the fire of Gehenna should have no power over him. Figure 1 From the…

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Running on the Inclined Plane of the Altar in the Second Temple

Running on the Inclined Plane of the Altar in the Second Temple

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בראשונה … רצין ועולים בכבש, וכל הקודם את חברו לתוך ארבע אמות זכה We read in the Mishna: [The priests used to compete for the honor of separating and removing ashes from the altar] by sprinting up the ramp. Whoever was the first to reach the top four cubits was entitled to remove the ashes. Mishna Yoma 2:1 One of the first authorities to question the practice described in this mishna was Eliezer ben Samuel of Metz who lived in…

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An (almost) Unknown Halakhic Work by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi and an attempt to answer the question: who punctuated the first edition of the Shulhan Arukh?

An (almost) Unknown Halakhic Work by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi and an attempt to answer the question: who punctuated the first edition of the Shulhan Arukh?

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database computer programmer in Montreal Quebec. He graduated from McGill University and studied in Lubavitch Yeshivoth in Israel and New York. In 1980, the late Rabbi Yehoshua Mondshine published a manuscript, which was a list of chapters and paragraphs (halakhot and se’fim), selected by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (RSZ), from the Shulhan Arukh (SA) of Rabbi Yosef Karo. (RYK) Figure 1: Part of the list of halakhot prepared by Rabbi Shneur Zalman and the preliminary and concluding notes written…

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