Book Review: Pischei Tefilah u-Mo’ad by Y. S. Spiegel
פתחי תפילה ומועד, יעקב שמואל שפיגל, ירושלים תש”ע, 540 עמודים. Pischei Tefilah u-Mo’ad, Y. S. Speigel, Jerusalem: 2010, 540 pp. Professor Speigel is one of the most prolific writers in the Jewish academic scene, as the author of over 160 articles and 18 books (16 of those are publications for the first time of works which remained in manuscript. The other two are his own original and important studies; one of the latter is reviewed here). His articles cover an…
Seforim sale
This list consists of two parts. Part one is composed of seforim and books which I came across while hunting for seforim. Most of these titles are very hard to find. Some of the prices are better than others, but all in all I think they are fair. Almost all the books are in great shape. There is only one copy of most of these titles so they are being sold on a first come, first serve basis. Part two…
New Seforim list – Elul 2011
The Legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s Death: Truth or Fiction & the Cairo Genizah
A few years ago on the Seforim Blog I dealt with the famous legend of R. Yehuda Halevi’s death (link). More recently in Ami Magazine (# 32) I returned to this legend and related topics. This post contains new information as well as corrections that were not included in those earlier articles. R. Yehuda Halevi was born in the year 1075 in Toledo, Spain, and died in 1141. He is famous in Jewish history for being a great paytan, authoring…
Machon Yerushalayim’s Book Week 2011
As previously mentioned there are many book sales this time of year all over Eretz Yisroel, and many publishers release new titles for the occasion. One of the publishing houses that makes a special sale every year is Machon Yerushalayim (MY). This year for the sale MY released many new titles. Over twenty years ago MY released a beautiful new edition of the classic work Minchas Chinuch. Over time this edition has become a bestseller, selling thousands of copies worldwide….
Book Week 2011
Book week has just begin in Eretz Yisrael. As I have written in previous years every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week (see here, here and here). Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out just for the sale. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and other places have most of…
A Printing Mistake and the Mysterious Origins of Rashbi’s Yahrzeit*
In this post I would like to deal with tracing the early sources for the great celebrations that take place worldwide on Lag Ba-Omer, specifically at the Kever of Rashbi (R. Shimon b. Yochai) in Meron. A few years back on the Seforim Blog I dealt with some of these issues (link). More recently in Ami Magazine (# 22) I returned to some of the topics. This post contains new information and corrections that I have found which were not…
Seforim Sale
While hunting for seforim and books I recently came across the following excellent titles for sale, from an old library. Most of these titles are very hard to find. Some of the prices are better than others, but all in all I think they are fair. Almost all the books are in great shape. The sale prices are only for the next three days. After that they might not be available. There is only one copy of most of these…
A review of some Recent Torah Journals
In this post I would like to focus on some recent Torah Journals that have come out in the past few weeks. In the future I hope to return to this topic of these Journals with a more in-depth look at their goals and the history of early Journals in general in relationship to this. As many of these journals have only been distributed this week I am just offering some quick remarks on them. In general different people like…
International Book Week 2011
This week is the International book week in Jerusalem at Binyanei Ha’uma. Here is a list for some of the new titles for sale. Besides for these new titles there many other great discounts, for example Bialik is having some nice sales on some classic books much cheaper than their normal sale prices. הספרייה הלאומית בעקבות הבעל שם טוב: מאתיים וחמישים שנה למותו של הבעש”ט, מאתיים שנה למות ר’ נחמן מברסלב, תערוכה מאוצרות הספרייה הלאומית קטלוג אוצרות- אסתר ליבס תש”ע….
אדם דואג על אבוד דמיו / ואינו דואג על אִבוד ימיו
In the prior post, Yitzhak discussed a phrase and its origins. We now present, a chapter from R. S. Askenazi unpublished works, related to the same topic. As mentioned before we are working on printing his writings. At this point three volumes are completely ready to print (with a few more on the way). While they still require financial assistance to see the light of day we are very close, only 5K is necessary. With the help of many people,…
Some Recently Published Seforim
1. The Safari commentary, Mishnayot Mishnat Eretz Yisroel, on Meschect Yoma. This is but one of the many new volumes of this commentary that are coming out at a rapid speed. I hope they continue coming out at such speeds. 2. Zohar Amar’s Esrogei Eretz Yisroel. This volume is a continuation of his work, published last year, Arbat ha-Minim. As the title suggests, the new book focuses on the Etrog in particular and especially the various etrogim on the market…
מנהג אכילת ה’סימנים’ בליל ראש השנה וטעמיו
New Sefer Announcement
I just printed a small sefer, Likutei Eliezer, it is 120 pages and paperback. The sefer consists of four chapters each with many parts. Although portions of each chapter appeared on the blog, each has been significantly expanded – over double the amount of new material – as well as corrections and updates. All the pieces are in Hebrew. The first chapter starts out with a discussion of various possible sources regarding the well-known custom of saying Ledovid during Elul…