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Pesach, Haggadah, Art & Sundry Matters: A Recap of Important Seforimblog Articles

Pesach, Haggadah, Art & Sundry Matters: A Recap of Important Seforimblog Articles

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Among the more interesting aspects of the history of Haggados, is the inclusion of illustrations. This practice dates back to the Medieval period and, with the introduction of printing, was incorporated into that medium. Marc Michael Epstein’s excellent book regarding four seminal Haggadah manuscripts, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative & Religious Imagination, was reviewed here, and a number of those illustrations, were analyzed in “Everything is Illuminated: Mining the Art of IllustratedHaggadah Manuscripts for Meaning.” Epstein edited and wrote an…

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The Longest Masechta is …

The Longest Masechta is …

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As Jews, we are often intrigued with trivia about our holy books, and the more esoteric and harder to verify, the better. An example of such trivia is the longest masechta in shas. While it is relatively easy to verify that the longest masechta in terms of pages in the Vilna Shas is Bava Batra, with 176 pages, until modern times it was much more difficult to determine which is the largest masechta in terms of words or characters. Once…

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New Book Announcement

New Book Announcement

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The Minchas Chinuch on Pesach Volume One, A deeper perspective on the Mitzvos of Leil Haseder (31+268 pp.) The Minchas Chinuch on Pesach volume Two, A deeper perspective on the Mitzvos of Chametz (34+283 pp.) I would like to announce the release of two new volumes from Rabbi Moshe Hubner series devoted to the the Minchas Chinuch, in English. The first volume, released right before Pesach last year, is devoted to the mitzvos of leil haseder, including the mitzvah of…

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Special Italian Haftarah for the “Shabbat Kallah”

Special Italian Haftarah for the “Shabbat Kallah”

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Many communities in Europe and beyond had the practice of reciting a special haftarah from Isaiah 61–62 in honor of a groom on the Shabbat following the wedding. Ashkenazi communities began the haftarah with 61:10 and read until 63:9, which is also the 7th of the haftarot of consolation, which is which was read in most communities on the Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, and in some others on the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot in the event that there…

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When Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Father Translated the Torah

When Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Father Translated the Torah

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Yosef Lindell is a lawyer, writer, and lecturer living in Silver Spring, MD. He has a JD from NYU Law and an MA in Jewish history from Yeshiva University. He is one of the editors of the Lehrhaus and has published more than 30 articles on Jewish history and thought in a variety of venues. His website is yoseflindell.wordpress.com. In 1962, the Jewish Publication Society published a new translation of the Torah. The product of nearly a decade of work,…

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“Milta De’Bedichuta”: Some Playful Parodies of the Talmud in the Modern Period

“Milta De’Bedichuta”: Some Playful Parodies of the Talmud in the Modern Period

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6-Mar-23 Ezra Brand is an independent researcher based in Tel Aviv. He has an MA from Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University in Medieval Jewish History, where he focused his research on 13th and 14th century sefirotic Kabbalah. He is interested in using digital and computational tools in historical research. He has contributed a number of times previously to the Seforim Blog (tag), and a selection of his research can be found at his Academia.edu profile. He can be reached…

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The Etymology of “Onah”

The Etymology of “Onah”

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(MFirstAtty@aol.com) I thought it would be useful if everyone would have a better understanding of how the root ענה, occurring at Exodus 21:10 in the form “onatah,” can refer to the sexual obligation. I will offer several possibilities. First I must provide a brief overview of this widely occurring root. It is typically viewed as having four meanings as a verb: 1) respond, 2) sing, 3) afflict, and 4) occupy oneself with. It is hard to unify all these meanings….

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New book Announcement

New book Announcement

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After being out of print for several years, a new edition of Rav Yehuda Herzl Henkin z”l’s Shu”t Bnei Banim Vol. 1 was just published. The volume remains as relevant, original, and significant as when written, 4 decades ago; and has haskamot from a first-rank lineup of gedolim: R. Gedalia Felder, R. Moshe Feinstein, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Menashe Klein, R. Ovadia Yosef, R. Avram Shapira, and R. Mordechai Eliahu, all ztz”l. The new edition is annotated and punctuated, making…

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Shemot 2:1 – Did Rashi Include Miriam’s Advice to Her Father?

Shemot 2:1 – Did Rashi Include Miriam’s Advice to Her Father?

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“Rashi’s choice of citations from the voluminous material of the Sages is in itself a commentary for those who understand the reasons he selected one or two opinions out of many” Publisher’s Preface to the Artscroll Sapirstein Rashi on Shemos, (Brooklyn 1994) page ix One of the most famous Medrashim in Sefer Shemot tells how six-year-old Miriam convinced her father Amram to re-marry her mother Yocheved. After the decree that all baby boys born would be thrown into the Nile,…

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Chanukah books and Etymology, Miracles (?), Dreidel, Cards and Christmas: A Roundup of Previous Posts

Chanukah books and Etymology, Miracles (?), Dreidel, Cards and Christmas: A Roundup of Previous Posts

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Zerachya Licht, “חז״ל ופולמס חנוכה,” and Marc Shapiro, “The Hanukkah Miracle,” discuss the 19th-century controversy regarding the polyglot, Chaim Zelig Slonimsky, and the connection, or lack thereof, the miracle of the candles burning for eight days. Licht discusses Slonimsky in more depth in a two-part post, “Chaim Zelig Slonimsky and the Diskin Family,” part 1 and part 2. Marc also discusses a potential Maccabean Psalm in his article here. Mitchell First traces the history and spelling of two terms associated…

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New Books by Rabbi Mandelbaum

New Books by Rabbi Mandelbaum

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This post serves a dual purpose; first, to describe some new seforim, thereby making the Seforim Blog readership aware of their recent publication. Second, to make some of these works available for purchase for those interested. Part of the proceeds will be going to support the efforts of the Seforim Blog. Earlier this year I wrote about two new editions of the Chida’s famous travel diary. A few weeks ago, a third edition of this diary was published (533 pp.)….

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Jews, Medicine and the University of Padua A Behind the Scenes Tour of a New Exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Padua November 2, 2022- December 31, 2022

Jews, Medicine and the University of Padua A Behind the Scenes Tour of a New Exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Padua November 2, 2022- December 31, 2022

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The city of Padua (or Padova), just twenty-five miles southwest of Venice, has a rich and expansive Jewish history, though it is not typically on the itinerary of the Jewish traveler to Italy. One might perhaps recognize the city name as the penultimate stop on the train from Florence to Venice. The likes of Rabbi Yehuda Minz (Mahari Minz- 15th century), Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen (Maharam Padua- 16th century), and Rabbi Moshe Ḥayyim Luzzatto (Ramḥal- 18th century) all lived and taught…

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The Unusual Word Tzafufim in Pirkei Avos

The Unusual Word Tzafufim in Pirkei Avos

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* On a recent Shabbos afternoon I was learning the Yerushalmi to Peah when my thoughts turned – for reasons described below – to the famous passage in Pirkei Avos (5:5) עומדים צפופים ומשתחווים רווחים. Every schoolboy is familiar with the phrase. The Mishna sets forth ten miracles regularly experienced in the times of the Temple. The eighth of these, as set forth above, is that though the people stood crowded in the Temple courtyard, they were nevertheless able to…

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The Enigma of Abraham Rosenberg, R. Yitzchak Scheiner, Mordecai Kaplan, and Prof. Marvin Fox

The Enigma of Abraham Rosenberg, R. Yitzchak Scheiner, Mordecai Kaplan, and Prof. Marvin Fox

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Abraham Rosenberg made his first appearance during the dispute over Solomon Friedlaender’s forged Yerushalmi Kodashim. He portrayed himself as a student of Friedlaender. Here is the title page of his booklet Aneh Khesil in which he defends Friedlaender from the attacks of his critics. Rosenberg also wrote some other things in defense of Friedlaender, including an article in the Frankfurt Orthodox paper Der Israelit and letters to various figures who were involved in the dispute over the Yerushalmi Kodashim. Who…

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