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The Babylonian Geonim’s Attitude to the Talmudic Text

The Babylonian Geonim’s Attitude to the Talmudic Text

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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…

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Review of My Father’s Journey by Sara Reguer

Review of My Father’s Journey by Sara Reguer

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About a year ago, Seforim Blog readers were informed by Prof. Marc Shapiro of the publication of Sara Reguer’s book My Father’s Journey, and they were further advised that this book would be of great value to anyone interested in the history of the yeshiva movement and Eastern European orthodoxy (see here). The following review illustrates the contribution the book indeed makes to these fields of study. This basis of this memoir is essentially a diary which affords readers a…

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Some New books

Some New books

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This week is the Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies at the Mount Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Here is a link to all the lectures that are taking place. In honor of this Congress many academic publishers have released various titles in the past few weeks. There is also a small book fair at the congress where the books are being sold at reduced prices. Here is a list of some of the newer titles. For…

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On R’ Aron Zelig Halevi Epstein Ztz”l

On R’ Aron Zelig Halevi Epstein Ztz”l

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יג מנחם אב תשס”ט I and thousands of others suffered a great loss. Our great Rosh Yeshivah, R’ Aron Zelig Halevi Epstein of Yeshiva Shar Hatorah, was niftar. During the years 2004-2006, through the efforts of My dear friend Meir Kahn, I had the special Zechus to have many interesting conversations with the Rosh Yeshivah Ztz”l. The following is a selection of pieces from those conversations. This article originally appeared in the Hebrew Newspaper Mishpacha, in the Kulmos section for…

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New book announcement: Yeshurun volume 36

New book announcement: Yeshurun volume 36

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This past Wednesday the thirty sixth volume of the Torah journal Yeshurun was released. As I am on the editorial board of this journal, I normally do not write a review of new volumes for fear of being biased, or the appearance thereof. In keeping with my stance, I will not write a review below, but rather just highlight some of the topics in the volume. Normally, Yeshurun is a bi-annual, with a new volume published before Rosh Hashanah and…

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The 93 Beit Yaakov Martyrs: A Modern Midrash

The 93 Beit Yaakov Martyrs: A Modern Midrash

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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…

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Zvi Hirsch Masliansky: Memoirs from the Hebrew Periodical Ha-Doar

Zvi Hirsch Masliansky: Memoirs from the Hebrew Periodical Ha-Doar

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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…

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A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments

A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments

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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…

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Book week & The International Book Fair 2017 Updated

Book week & The International Book Fair 2017 Updated

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Book week just began in Eretz Yisrael. As I have written the past ten years, every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week (for previous years lists see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Many of the companies offer sales for the whole month. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places…

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Interesting Legacy Judaica Auction lots

Interesting Legacy Judaica Auction lots

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is holding an auction on June 13, 2017, and we wanted to highlight a few items of interest (for our previous post regarding the auction house and previous auctions see here. There are, of course, some old and rare books from the 16th and early 17th centuries (lots 1-7), and over forty manuscripts and a number of letters from rabbinical luminaries, R. Yosef Dov Solovetchik (Beis ha’Levi) (lot 198), R. Yitzhak Ze’ev Solovetchik (Brisker Rav) (lot 199), R. Hayim Ozer…

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Book week 2017

Book week 2017

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Book week just began in Eretz Yisrael. As I have written the past ten years, every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week (for previous years lists see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Many of the companies offer sales for the whole month. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places…

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Translations of Rabbi Judah Halevi’s Kuzari

Translations of Rabbi Judah Halevi’s Kuzari

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Daniel J. Lasker is Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought. He has published widely in the fields of medieval Jewish philosophy, the Jewish-Christian debate, and Karaism. This is Professor Lasker’s third essay at the Seforim blog. On the occasion of the publication of: ספר הכוזרי. הוא ספר הטענה והראָיה לדת המושפלת לרבי יהודה הלוי תרגם מערבית-יהודית לעברית בת זמננו מיכאל שוַרץ הוצאת הספרים של אוניברסיטת…

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Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925

Lag B’Omer through the eyes of a Litvak in 1925

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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…

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The 1908 Student Strike at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary: A Newly Discovered Document

The 1908 Student Strike at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary: A Newly Discovered Document

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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…

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Some Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2017

Some Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2017

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For over thirty years, starting on Isru Chag of Pesach, Mossad HaRav Kook publishing house has made a big sale on all of their publications, dropping prices considerably (some books are marked as low as 65% off). Each year they print around twenty new titles. They also reprint some of their older, out of print titles. Some years important works are printed; others not as much. This year they have printed some valuable works, as they did last year. See…

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