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Bibliography, Why It’s Important

Bibliography, Why It’s Important

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In Professor Daniel Sperber’s latest book, Netivot Pesikah (Jerusalem, Reuven Mass, 2008), one of the areas he discusses the importance of having an awareness of is bibliography. As Eliezer Brodt noted in his review at the Seforim blog, Sperber provides examples where people have gone wrong due to their lack of bibliographical knowledge. Of course, long before Sperber, the importance of Jewish bibliography was already noted by R. Shabbatai Bass, most well-known for his super-commentary on Rashi, Siftei Hakahmim, but…

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The Hatam Sofer’s Retraction of his Approbation to the Pinner Talmud

The Hatam Sofer’s Retraction of his Approbation to the Pinner Talmud

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Of late, translations of the talmud have become a popular topic. In the history of translations, the translation done by Dr. Efraim Pinner, is an important one for multiple reasons. Among other firsts, the Pinner translation was the first German translation of the talmud. Pinner envisioned a complete translation of the entire talmud but only one volume was produced, a translation meskhta Berachot. This edition contains multiple approbations, there is, however, one approbation does not appear in the book. (A…

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The Saga of Publishing the Works of Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner

The Saga of Publishing the Works of Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner

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David Glasner, an economist at the Federal Trade Commission, is a great-grandson of Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner. This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Many readers of the Seforim blog may be interested, perhaps even pleased, to hear about the recent publication of a new volume containing a number of works of Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner (1856-1924), chief rabbi (av beit din) of Klausenburg (1877-1923), one of the founding fathers of Mizrahi, author of Dor Revi’i on Hullin,…

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Mayim Hayyim, the Baal Shem Tov, and R. Meir the son of R. Jacob Emden

Mayim Hayyim, the Baal Shem Tov, and R. Meir the son of R. Jacob Emden

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Sources contemporary to the Baal Shem Tov that attest to his deeds, or that even discuss him at all, are sparse. Although some secular sources, including tax records and other documents, have recently been unearthed by academic researchers, there is a paucity of Jewish texts. Most of the “historical” record regarding the Baal Shem Tov comes from a collection of stories, Shivhei Ha-Besht. That work, however, was collected much later and is less reliable than others when assessing the Baal…

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Pini Dunner — Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931

Pini Dunner — Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931

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B.A (Hons), formerly rabbi of London’s Saatchi Synagogue, is an avid collector of polemical and controversial Hebraica, with a very large, diverse private collection of such material. Many items in his collection are unknown and unrecorded, and relate to long forgotten, obscure controversies. This is his first post at the Seforim blog in a series about rare polemical pieces from his personal collection. Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931 Pini Dunner (London, England) In the mid-1920s the rabbi and rosh…

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Leket Yosher – A Closer Appraisal in Light of a Recent Controversy

Leket Yosher – A Closer Appraisal in Light of a Recent Controversy

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In a recent discussion in the journal Or Yisrael concerning the permissibility of using ArtScroll gemaras — for PDFs of the articles, see here — one source deserves closer scrutiny. In particular, some authorities who are against the use of ArtScroll gemaras cite to a passage in the Leket Yosher in support of their opinion. Thus, an examination of the Leket Yosher is appropriate. The Leket Yosher was compiled by R. Yosef ben Moshe (1423-c.1490), a student of R. Israel…

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Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3

Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3

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I thought that I had exhausted all I had to say about Rabbi Zvi Benjamin Auerbach’s edition of the Eshkol — see my first two posts at the Seforim blog, here and here [and elaborations] — but thanks to some helpful comments from readers, there is some more material that should be brought to the public’s attention. Even before looking at this, let me express my gratitude to Dan Rabinowitz who sent me this picture of a youthful Auerbach. In…

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Baruch Oberlander — A Note on the New Edition of the Or Zarua

Baruch Oberlander — A Note on the New Edition of the Or Zarua

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is the rabbi in Budapest, Hungary, since 1989, and is the editor of Tel Talpiot. He has published many articles in the journal Ohr Yisroel and is the world’s leading expert on the forged Yerushalmi Kodashim. This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. משהו אודות עריכת הספר “אור זרוע” מהדורה החדשה מאת הרב ברוך אבערלאנדער אב”ד בבודאפשט, הונגריה התעלמות ממהדורה קודמת של פירוש רבינו שמואל מפלייזא על פיוט שבת הגדול בימים אלו רכשתי לעצמי כרך מפואר של ספר…

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Elliott Horowitz — Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman

Elliott Horowitz — Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman

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of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, described Edmund Wilson’s unique Christmas card and some thoughts on the Talmud [see here]. This is his third contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman Elliott Horowitz Although there have been some fine reviews of the collection of letters by Isaiah Berlin published in England under the title Flourishing: Letters 1928-1946 (Chatto and Windus, 2004), and in the…

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The Ongoing Debate on the Usage of Print vs. Electronic Journals: Perspective from Tradition’s Online Editor

The Ongoing Debate on the Usage of Print vs. Electronic Journals: Perspective from Tradition’s Online Editor

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To the Editors of the Seforim blog: I thank C.G. and Menachem for their thoughtful comments regarding Tradition at the Seforim blog (see “The Ongoing Debate on the Usage of Print vs. Electronic Journals: Perspective of an Ivy League PhD Student,” available here). Since I understood the post to be using the example of Tradition for a larger phenomenon of deciding between print and electronic journals, I will also try to relate to this ongoing discussion in the context of…

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Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

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of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, responded to a discussion of Bugs Bunny’s purported Jewish identity. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud by Elliott Horowitz As is well known, during the 1950’s Edmund Wilson, the great (and perhaps greatest) American man of letters, began studying Hebrew, both in order to read the Hebrew Bible on his own, and in order to…

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The Ongoing Debate on the Usage of Print vs. Electronic Journals: Perspective of an Ivy League PhD Student

The Ongoing Debate on the Usage of Print vs. Electronic Journals: Perspective of an Ivy League PhD Student

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I recently had an enjoyable conversation with a former roommate and friend, back from our days at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, who is currently nearing completion of a doctorate at the graduate school of an Ivy League institution in computer science, about his views on using print vs. electronic journals. Our discussion centered on the notion that a journal Tradition, published by the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), a leading institution of American Modern Orthodox Judaism, charges a fee of $25.00…

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Moritz Steinschneider and Ugaritic

Moritz Steinschneider and Ugaritic

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ManuscriptBoy: Moritz Steinschneider’s online presence has been significantly augmented by the Jewish National Library’s Digitized Book Repository. They seem to have scanned all of his German books, as well as the Hebrew translation of his general work ‘Sifrut Yisrael’. And also includes an interesting anecdote that someone once told me how Prof. Moshe Bar Asher shut himself in a room for a couple of days, and emerged having taught himself Ugaritic.