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Stet in the Beit Yosef: Fish and Milk, from Typographical Error to Typological Exemplar

Stet in the Beit Yosef: Fish and Milk, from Typographical Error to Typological Exemplar

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Rabbi Dr. Holzer is Director of the Mohs Surgery Clinic in the Department of Dermatology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and is an assistant editor of the recent RCA Siddur Avodat HaLev. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9852-3958/ 28 Binyamin, Beit Shemesh, Israel 9952200/ Aton.holzer@gmail.com A passage in the magnum opus of R. Joseph Karo (Maran, or the Mehaber, 1488-1575), the Beit Yosef (YD 87:5) tends to be reckoned among the more consequential scribal errors in Jewish legal texts. [ה] ”דגים וחגבים מותר…

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A Tale of Two Zionist Siddurim in Exile

A Tale of Two Zionist Siddurim in Exile

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Seth (Avi) Kadish Zionist Siddurim and Modern Orthodoxy Modern Orthodoxy today, in America and throughout the diaspora, is largely a Zionist world. It is, in a sense, the English-speaking wing of Religious Zionism outside of Israel. It is a world of synagogue communities with very close ties to Israel. Most people in Modern Orthodox synagogues have visited Israel, have family and friends who live in Israel, and support Israel. They see Israel as a blessing from God. They say prayers…

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An Example of Three “Mahadurot” of Rashi

An Example of Three “Mahadurot” of Rashi

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Shemot 40:38 Shemot 28:6 One of the most informative and endearing comments in Rashi can be found in Parshat Tetzaveh. In trying to explain to us the various בגדי כהונה, Rashi makes a preemptive move and describes all of them together so that his readers will be able to make more sense of the total package. He introduces this long explanation with the following words: אִם בָּאתִי לְפָרֵשׁ מַעֲשֵׂה הָאֵפוֹד וְהַחֹשֶׁן עַל סֵדֶר הַמִּקְרָאוֹת, הֲרֵי פֵּרוּשָׁן פְּרָקִים, וְיִשְׁגֶה הַקּוֹרֵא בְּצֵרוּפָן,…

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Azariah de’ Rossi’s Annotations on Sefer ha-Kuzari: Identification and Preliminary Analysis

Azariah de’ Rossi’s Annotations on Sefer ha-Kuzari: Identification and Preliminary Analysis

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This article presents the identification of annotations on a 1547 Venice edition of Sefer ha-Kuzari (The Kuzari) as the work of the Italian-Jewish scholar Rabbi Azariah de’ Rossi (min ha-Adummim). The identification is based on detailed paleographic comparison between these annotations and de’ Rossi’s verified notes on a manuscript of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed (Paris, BnF MS hebr. 691). The article examines the nature of these annotations, their sources, and their significance for understanding de’ Rossi’s interpretative approach and…

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AI Killed the Purim Torah Star

AI Killed the Purim Torah Star

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We have previously discussed Jewish literature and the genre of parody, which arguably began with Maseches Purim and inspired many other works that use Purim as a catalyst. The genre further developed, with parody being employed in various contexts, such as the disputes between traditionalist Litvaks and the nascent Hasidic movement, the Haskalah, or during the mass emigration of Jews to the United States, which highlighted the religious laxity of many immigrants. (For some of our previous discussions, see “Purim…

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“Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?”

“Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?”

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/Brandeis University וְנַהֲפוֹךְ הוּא “Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?” No title is more intriguing than “Why are the Books of Ruth and Esther so much alike?” for a study of two biblical books ostensibly having nothing in common besides the featuring of a heroine. Otherwise, there are hardly two narrative biblical books seemingly more unalike. The Book of Ruth takes place in rural Judea, in Bethlehem, in the period of the Judges, before the…

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Hayyim ben Benjamin Ze’ev Bochner: Kabbalist, Talmudist, and Grammarian

Hayyim ben Benjamin Ze’ev Bochner: Kabbalist, Talmudist, and Grammarian

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Hayyim ben Benjamin Ze’ev Bochner (c. 1610–84), a multi-faceted individual, was the author of varied works reflecting diverse contemporary intellectual interests. His books are both independent works and commentaries on earlier titles. A Kabbalist, Talmudist, and grammarian, Bochner wrote on these subjects as well as annotating numerous other works. Born in Cracow, Bochner’s family was one of that city’s wealthiest Jewish families, owners of a stone mansion and two adjoining stores on Casimir place, a street otherwise without Jews. A…

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The Identity of an unknown Yiddish Prayer Book (From Zürich to Zürich)

The Identity of an unknown Yiddish Prayer Book (From Zürich to Zürich)

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Moshe Rosenfeld has published books on Jewish printing in Augsburg, Wilhermsdorf and Karlsruhe as well as articles on Fuerth and Sulzbach prints. His most recent publication is the biography ‘The Rav of Fuerth’, highlighting Rav Dovid Kahana Spiro szl (1901-1970). His contact information is mnrosenfeld@gmail.com Yiddish printed books are the stepchildren of Hebrew bibliography. We have systematic bibliographies of Hebrew books from nearly 500 years ago, amongst the authors are non-Jews like Gessner[1a], Bartolocci [1b] and Wolf . To single…

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The Illusory Portrait of R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller: Deceptive Art and Jewish Images in Vienna

The Illusory Portrait of R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller: Deceptive Art and Jewish Images in Vienna

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For if I am deceived, I am. for he who is not, cannot be deceived; and if I am deceived, by this same token I am. Wolfgang Kemp after St Augustine of Hippo (Epigraph to Rembrandt Hoogstraten: Colour and Illusion) On October 8, 2024, Vienna’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, opened the exhibit “Rembrandt – Hoogstraten Colour and Illusion.” The museum’s permanent collection features remarkable works by Rembrandt, including a self-portrait and a now-confirmed portrait of his son,…

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Half Faith, Half Heresy: Between S.Y. Agnon and Gershom Scholem

Half Faith, Half Heresy: Between S.Y. Agnon and Gershom Scholem

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The bonds of friendship between S.Y. Agnon and Gershom Scholom are well documented in their writings and in the copious scholarship on the celebrated Nobel laureate and the revered professor of Jewish mysticism. In this context, the interview that Dan Miron conducted with Scholem about Agnon (broadcast on Israeli television in February 1981, a year before Scholem’s death) is noteworthy. The recording (part 1 not preserved; part 2 and 3 available) and the transcript of the interview (in Hebrew or…

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‘And Moses Hid His Face’: Isaac Abarbanel and Maimonides on the Nature of Prophecy

‘And Moses Hid His Face’: Isaac Abarbanel and Maimonides on the Nature of Prophecy

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Eric Lawee is a full professor in the Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches the history of Jewish biblical scholarship. His *Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah: Canonization and Resistance in the Reception of a Jewish Classic* (2019), published by OUP, won the 2019 Jewish Book Award in the category of Scholarship of the Jewish Book Council (Judges’ Remarks below) and was finalist for a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award of the Association for Jewish Studies in 2021. He…

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A World War II Liberator’s Letter to his Hometown Rabbi

A World War II Liberator’s Letter to his Hometown Rabbi

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I recently realized that this year, January 26th will correspond to the 26th of Teves. That date marks the tenth Yahrtzeit of a remarkable man — who lived through some extraordinary experiences exactly eighty years ago. I had the honor of knowing Mr. Charles Press (1920 – 2015) for the last eight years of his life. However, others in Harrisburg, PA (where I served as a pulpit Rabbi from 2007 – 2016) enjoyed his friendship for over nine decades. Over…

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April Fools! Tracing the History of Dreidel Among Neo-Traditionalists and Neo-Hebraists

April Fools! Tracing the History of Dreidel Among Neo-Traditionalists and Neo-Hebraists

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These explanations [for playing with the sevivon] are far from reality. Why do no sources dating from the Maccabean period, and only in the last few hundred years, mention playing sevivon? If “Hakhamim” decreed it, or it was the custom in ancient times, of if “Beis Din shel Hashmonaim” established it, why is it not mentioned for all these generations? Yitzhak Tesler, “Ha-Dreidel (Sevivon) be-Chanukah: Mekoroseha, Ta’amyah, u-Minhagyah,” Or Yisrael, 14 (1999), 50. I have seen a toy in London…

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Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner’s View of Torah Im Derekh Eretz and a Hidden Haskamah Rediscovered

Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner’s View of Torah Im Derekh Eretz and a Hidden Haskamah Rediscovered

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Shmuel Lesher is the assistant rabbi of the BAYT (Toronto). He can be reached at shmuel.lesh@gmail.com *Thanks to my father-in-law, Rabbi Hanan Balk, for sharing many of the works used to research this topic with me from his vast and eclectic personal library. Thank you to Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, Rabbi Moshe Lieber, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, Ezer Dienna, and Rabbi Ken Stollon for greatly improving this article. Thank you to Simmy Zieleniec for connecting me with the Levi family….

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Disputatious Divorces: Public Controversies over Gitten and Couple Relations

Disputatious Divorces: Public Controversies over Gitten and Couple Relations

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God said “It is not good that man be alone: I will make him a helper, a counterpart to him. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:18, 24) As a rose among the thorns, so is my beloved among the young women. As an apple tree among the forest trees, so is my beloved among the young men (Song of Songs 2:2,3). A man takes…

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