Upcoming Events
For those in the Washington, D.C. area next Tuesday, there will be a talk at the Library of Congress at noon. The flyer appears below.
Kosher Tube: TV Series on the 13 Principles
My next post will, God willing, appear after Pesah (in three parts). In the meantime, I wanted to let readers know about the thirteen episodes of a show focusing on the Thirteen Principles. It is called Credo 13 and you can find it here. It appeared on Canadian television and “stars” myself, David Novak. Benjamin Hecht, Shalom Carmy, Eliezer Breitowitz, Mayer Schiller, and Leib Tropper. (If you can’t tolerate, or figure out, the game played by the girls in the…
Preview of R. Shmuel Ashkenazi's Latest Work
One of the hidden giants of the seforim world both in ultra orthodox and academic circles is a man known as Rabbi Shmuel Askenazi. Professor Zev Gris writes about him: אני ובני דורי נוכל להעיד על בור סיד שאין מחשב שידמה לו, כר’ שמואל אשכנזי גמלאי מפעל הביבליוגרפיה העברית”) הספר כסוכן תרבות מראשית הדפוס עד לעת החדשה, לימוד ודעת במחשבה יהודית (תשסו) עמ’ 257). This man has authored many books and hundreds of articles in dozens of journals – both…
Post on my sefer
‘s Bein Kesah L’Asurby Eliezer Brodt This post is not a review of a sefer as one can not review ones own sefer. Rather it is a simple announcement and book description. Last year I posted a chapter from my sefer about the minhaghim of Rosh Hasnaha. I was hoping to complete that work this year but as the material grew I realized that would not be possible. Around Pesach time I decided that I would take some of the…
Special Subscription Offer to Tradition
In honor of the adoption of TraditionOnline Seforim Blog, Tradition Online is offering, for a limited time only, a reduced price of $15 for a 1-year, online-only subscription to Tradition. This will entitle you to complete online access to upcoming issues as well as all 50 years of the Tradition archives. To subscribe, simply go to the Subscriptions link on the TraditionOnline.org sidebar, choose the 1-year online-only subscription option at the bottom of the page, and when you get to…
Elliott Horowitz — “Between Hebron and Jerusalem”
offered his review of Elliott Horowitz (of Bar-Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review), Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton University Press, 2006) — available here — and this past shabbat at Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Horowitz delivered a lecture entitled “Was the Massacre at Mercaz Ha-Rav Committed by Amalekites?” For those who missed this lecture (myself included), you can read his “Between Hebron and Jerusalem,” posted at JewSchool.com,…
mikhtav berakha from Rav Avraham Shapira to Rav Yitzchak Dadon’s Atchalta Hee
As mentioned at the Michtavim blog, forty-year-old Rav Yitzchak Dadon, shlita, was the first to shoot at the terrorist following the massacre last week at Yeshivat Mercaz Ha-Rav in Jerusalem. Rav Dadon studied for many years at Yeshivat Mercaz Ha-Rav and is the author of over a half-dozen seforim, including the very-celebrated and landmark two-volume set, Atchalta Hee (2005 and 2007), on the relationship between Zionism of religious leaders from the Ashkenaz and Sefaradic communities to Zionism and the establishment…
Ofeq Institute and the New (English) Version of the Messilat Yesharim
The Messilat Yesharim, by R. Moshe Chaim Luzzato (Ramchal), is one of the foundational works of mussar. The Gra, among others, praise the Messilat Yesharim. As such, any addition to its oeuvre is important in its own right. The Ofeq Institute* has recently published an English translation of an alternative version of the Messilat Yesharim. This version is fundamentally different than the standard edition of Messilat Yesharim. The standard edition is divided into chapters based upon various character traits. The…
“Derashot Shel Maran: A Little Studied Aspect of Maran Ovadiah Yosef’s Weltanschauung” at the Michtavim blog
In a recent post at the Michtavim blog entitled “Derashot Shel Maran: A Little Studied Aspect of Maran Ovadiah Yosef’s Weltanschauung,” I discuss a shift within the research and writings of Dr. Kimmy Caplan from the area of sermons of historical American rabbis to the contemporary haredi community and contemporary Orthodox historiography (the latter which will be the subject of an upcoming post at the Michtavim blog). I believe that his varied areas of research have reunited in his recent…
New Torah u-Madda Journal, available online in PDF; and Criticisms of Menachem
After I posted the Table of Contents to the latest volume of the Torah u-Madda Journal, no. 14 (2006/2007), at the Michtavim blog last week — note, this post has been updated with the links to the PDFs, hosted at YUTorah.org — I received some very harsh criticisms for my laxity in providing links to the PDFs, including one noteworthy email. To add insult to injury, the accuser sent me criticisms via an anonymous email address! See here [PDF].
JQR Forum in honor of 25th anniversary of Prof. Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi’s “Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory”
In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi’s Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, the Jewish Quarterly Review published a special forum with articles by David N. Myers, Moshe Idel, Peter N. Miller, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi and Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, in the latest issue of Jewish Quarterly Review 97.4 (Fall 2007). Jewish Quarterly Review, established in 1889 and currently the oldest English-language journal in the field of Jewish studies, is published by…
International Conference in Memory of Moritz Steinschneider
In memory of Moritz Steinschneider’s unrivaled studies in Hebrew Bibliography and the actuality of his research 100 years after his death an International Centennial Conference will be held in Berlin (November 20-22, 2007). For the conference program, see here. Benjamin Richler and Charles H. Manekin, among others, will be presenting at the conference and Dr. Manekin will covering the conference for the Seforim blog. See also Dr. Charles H. Manekin’s earlier post (“Moritz Steinschneider’s Indecent Burial”) at the Seforim blog.
New Books
1. Machon Yerushalayim has begun to publish a new edition of the Ramban on the Torah. In this edition they include the Ramban, based mostly on the Lisbon, 1489 edition. The commentaries of the Techeles Mordechai, Kur HaZahav, Kesef Muzukkah, and R. Meir Arik’s are included. For an earlier post at the Seforim blog touching on the Chavel-Mossad HaRav Kook edition of the Ramban, see here. 2. The Onkelos translation has come out on Bereishit, I have previously discussed this…
Latest Hebrew Journals
Although, I hope to do a more complete posts on these, two Hebrew journals, Yeshurun, and Or Yisrael have come out with their Tishrei editions. Or Yisrael contains a section, from various authors, discussing the Kashrut of whiskey. They have a section devoted to halachik issues of Sukkos. Additional material includes an article by R. Gedaliah Oberlander (continuing on his prior articles dealing with minhagim) discussing the custom of lighting candles on Yom Tov.