If someone were to ask you of an instance where a rabbi was declared the messiah by his followers, the first example that would probably come to mind is the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, R’ Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, who to this very day many of his chasidim regard as the Messiah, despite his death. Many people would struggle to point to any other similar times in history, besides for the Shabbethai Tzvi affair and his various successors , where someone was…
Note: I wrote the following essay outline several years ago, but shelved it upon discovering that most of its novelty and much more had already been published by David de Sola Pool over a hundred years ago. On the sad occasion of the recent passing of my beloved mother I offer it now in her memory. Prayer and divinity were close to her heart. May our prayers be deepened by their study. The Kaddish is one of the most familiar…
It’s been awhile since I posted a list of new seforim. I hope to post an updated list of a few hundred titles within the next few weeks. In this post I want to focus on a few new titles that, aside for being new, all have a connection to one topic. This is also an update to some earlier posts relating to this topic. As a bochur about twenty years ago, I came across a small sefer called Olas…
‘מאי חנוכה’ מאת זרחיה ליכט תמונה מהחכם חיים זליג סלונימסקי חיים זליג סלונימסקי (1810-1904), המכונה חז”ס, היה אחד מגדולי המשכילים במאה ה-19. חכם גדול בתורה ובמדע שפעל הרבה להפיץ השכלה עולמית בקרב עמו. כמעט עד סוף ימיו נשאר חז”ס נכבד בין בעיני הרבנים מצד חכמתו בתורה ונאמנותו לשמירת המצוות, ובין בעיני המשכילים מצד חכמתו במדע. אך בעת זקנותו אבד עמדתו החיובי בקרב הרבנים ע”י כתבה אחת שפרסם בעיתונו ‘הצפירה’ (דצמבר 1891). בחנוכה של שנת 1891 פרסם חז”ס מאמר בדפי העיתון,…
1. In listening to a recent shiur on Daas Torah by R. Hershel Schachter, I found a number of noteworthy comments. In this shiur, which has been heard thousands of times, R. Schachter states, “If you have an outlook, if you have what I would consider a crooked, a krum outlook on Yom ha-Atzmaut, then your outlook on eruvin is also crooked. I can’t rely on anything that you say.” I find this difficult to accept, since can’t someone be…
All the comments to the previous posting (“A Note on R. Bezalel Alexandrov’s משכן בצלאל and its Prenumeranten”) are deeply appreciated. It’s what makes the Seforim Blog required reading for anyone interested in serious scholarship. I cannot possibly address all the comments. The references in the notes to the essay address some of the issues raised. To Yisrael Dubitsky’s important comments, one should add that privately owned copies of the two parts of משכן בצלאל are available, at the very…
Not much appears to be known about R. Bezalel Alexandrov (circa 1850-1930). Born in Grodno, he would ultimately come under the influence of the teachings of R. Yisrael Salanter (1809-1883), largely through the efforts of R. Yitzchak Blazer, i.e., R. Itzel Peterburger (1837-1907). R. Bezalel considered R. Itzel to be his primary teacher, especially during the period they both resided in Kovno. R. Bezalel was a close associate of R. Yosef Yozel Horowitz (1847-1919) of Nevarodok, perhaps the last of…
1. People continue to send me examples of censorship and altering of texts. If I would discuss all of them, I would have no time for other matters, but I do intend to get to some of these examples. Let me also share an “updating” of a classic rabbinic text that I discovered on my own in the old fashioned way. This is one of those examples that I wish I knew about when I wrote my book. It is…
Simchat Torah is not mentioned anywhere in the two Talmuds or Midrashim . In fact we have no proof that in the times of Talmud they used to finish the Torah cycle reading on Simchat Torah. The prevalent minhag in the land of Israel was to read the Torah not in one year but approximately in three . In fact it seems that every synagogue read at its own speed without any established cycle, so speaking of the specific “day”…
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…
As I march around town grasping my Hirsch Siddur, I sometimes am asked, “Are you a Yekke?” to which I answer, “I am an American Yekke.” This statement draws puzzled looks as if I had said that I were an Algonquin Italian. “America is a Germanic country and my family has lived here for a century,” I say, attempting to explain but provoking usually even more puzzlement. For those who want to hear more, I present my case. Consider the…
Hy”d (Translated into English by Rachelle Emanuel) This article originally appeared in Hebrew in HaMayan 51:4 (2011), pp. 75-90. Today is the yahrzeit of the Rav Eitam and Naama Henkin, who were cruelly murdered one year ago. May Rav Eitam’s important writings, surely with us only thanks to Naama’s support, be an aliyat neshama for both. Hy”d. · “It is well known that the person who heads the above [body]” supports Keren Hayesod · What is the difference between Keren…