A Source for Rav Kook’s Orot Hateshuva Chapters 1 – 3
The Strange Shape of the Marcheshet Pan
“The underlying basis of our work is that pictures are an organic part of the commentary, and it possible that Rashi even allowed himself to limit his explanatory words when a picture was available to the reader. This is in the sense of “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The picture is an integral part of the written book, no less important than the words.” Dr Ezra Chwat Department of Manuscripts, National Library of Israel Giluy Milta B’Almah Blog…
The Babylonian Geonim’s Attitude to the Talmudic Text
we mentioned here that the Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies took place at the Mount Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Over the next few months we will be posting written transcriptions of some of the various presentations (we hope to receive additional ones). The first in this series is from Dr. Uzy Fuchs dealing with the Babylonian Geonim’s attitude to the Talmudic text, the subject of his recently released excellent book. To purchase this work contact…
The 93 Beit Yaakov Martyrs: A Modern Midrash
On January 8, 1943 an article appeared in The New York Times which the fate of 93 young women who took their own lives rather than serve as prostitutes for the German enemy. The article makes reference to a letter written some time earlier in which the plight of these young women was described in “real time.” 11 August 1942 My dear friend Mr. Schenkalewsky in New York, I do not know whether this letter will reach you. Do you…
Zvi Hirsch Masliansky: Memoirs from the Hebrew Periodical Ha-Doar
Introduction. Zvi Hirsch Masliansky, known as “The National Preacher” (1856-l943), was a member of the Hibbat Zion movement in Russia from the time of its inception in l882, and served as its itinerant preacher in the early 1890s. After his expulsion from Russia in 1895, he went to the United States, where he became a leading figure in the integration of the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to American life. He wrote memoirs of those two periods of his…
A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments
When I was in my early yeshiva years studying tractate Shabbos, I came across a Rashba which I found to be most intriguing. During its discussion of the first mishna, the gemara in Shabbos 4a makes the statement, “וכי אומרים לו לאדם חטא כדי שיזכה חבירך,” which means, “do we really say to a person, ‘sin in order that your friend should merit?’” A notion which suggests that a person should not sin in order that others can fulfill a…
ביאור שי’ הגר”א ביחס למנהג העמדת אילנות כו’ בחג השבועות
Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925
Dov Mayani (1903-1952) A Static and Evolving Chag Lag B’Omer has infiltrated Jewish culture as a bona fide holiday. While the day is celebrated throughout the Jewish world, it tends to take on added significance in Eretz Yisrael. This age-old disparity has seen a little easement, probably as a result of enhanced communication between the Promised Land and the rest of the world, but the difference is still obvious. R. Chaim Elazar Shapira of Munkács (1868-1937) states, as a point…
The 1908 Student Strike at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary: A Newly Discovered Document
I would like to thank Dr Zev Eleff for his invaluable assistance in helping me frame this article. I would also like to thank Sharon Horowitz of the Library of Congress for providing research assistance. The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), present day Yeshiva University, was officially founded on March 20, 1897. RIETS was the first unequivocally Orthodox Jewish seminary on American soil. Initially, its mission was entirely religious, limited “to promote the study of the Talmud and to…
The Hanukkah Miracle
However, there are a few points I would like to add. In my post here I wrote: To give an example . . . of how [R. Samuel Moses] Rubenstein’s later thought broke with tradition, see his Ha-Rambam ve-ha-Aggadah (Kovno, 1937), p. 103, where he claims that the story of the miracle of Hanukkah is almost certainly a late aggadic creation, and like many other miracle stories in aggadic literature was not originally intended to be understood as historical reality:[2]…
Afikoman – “Stealing“ and Other Related Minhagim
One of the most exciting parts of Seder night for kids is the “stealing” of the afikoman. Children plan well in advance when the best time would be for them to steal it, where they will hide it, as well as what they should ask for in exchange for it. Not surprisingly, toy stores do incredibly good business both during Chol Hamoed and in the days following Pesach because of this minhag. In this article I would like to trace…
Churches, Ronald McDonald, and More
1. In a recent post I mentioned R. Leon Modena, so let me note the following. In my article on entering churches, available here, I mention that R. Modena entered churches to hear the sermons. I also quote R. Eliezer Waldenberg’s description of R. Modena as an איש הפכפך. Only after my article appeared did I find that R. Solomon Scheinfeld uses similar language in describing R. Modena : הוא היה גדול בתורה וחכמת העולם, היה גאון בטבעו, אבל כדרך…
Parshat Tetzaveh. Greek letter Chi and Tav in Paleo-Hebrew
Rashi on Parshat Tetzave writes that the priests were anointed with oil, poured in the shape of the Greek letter כי. One would assume this is referring to letter Χ – 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet which sounds somewhere between English K and H . This letter spelled χῖ in Greek, is usually spelled “Chi” in English and indeed if one wanted to write it in Hebrew, he would probably transcribe it as כי (where Chaf is intended without…
מי כעמך כישראל
איסר זלמן ווייסברג, לייקוואוד מסופר שבליל א’ דר”ח חשון תשל”ט הי’ הצייר החבד”י ר’ ברוך נחשון שיחי’ מקרית ארבע ביחידות אצל הרבי מליובאוויטש זצוק”ל ושאל אם יכול להראות להרבי את הציורים פרי מעשה ידיו שהביא עמו מארה”ק. הרבי נענה בחיוב. ולשם כך הכינו תערוכה מציוריו בבנין הצמוד ל770. ביום רביעי ו’ כסלו הלך הרבי בלוויית מזכיריו לראות התערוכה. הרבי עיין בכל הציורים והעיר כו”כ הערות עליהם. כשניגש לציור בה מצוירים תפילין של הקב”ה ושל ישראל, ובתפילין של הקב”ה נכתב “ומי…