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Wine, Women & Song: Some Remarks on Poetry & Grammar – Part II

Wine, Women & Song: Some Remarks on Poetry & Grammar – Part II

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Wine, Women and Song: Some Remarks on Poetry and Grammar – Part II By: Yitzhak of בין דין לדין [In addition to reiterating my thanks to Andy and Wolf2191 for their assistance and encouragement, I wish to thank Eliezer Brodt for a number of valuable suggestions, several of which have been incorporated into this part of the essay.]Great Men and Grammar In the first part of this essay, we discussed Ibn Ezra’s slashing attack on the alleged grammatical lapses of…

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Elliott Horowitz — ‘The Howling Place of the Jews’

Elliott Horowitz — ‘The Howling Place of the Jews’

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In previous posts at the Seforim blog, Elliott Horowitz of Bar Ilan University, co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, and author of Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), has described Modern Amalekites [here], Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman [here], Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud [here], and Bugs Bunny [here]. This is his fifth contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Late in the first…

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Wine, Women & Song Some Remarks on Poetry & Grammar – Part I

Wine, Women & Song Some Remarks on Poetry & Grammar – Part I

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Wine, Women and Song: Some Remarks On Poetry and Grammar – Part I by Yitzhak of בין דין לדין [This is the first of three parts; I am greatly indebted to Andy and Wolf2191 for their valuable comments, many of which I have incorporated into this paper, and for obtaining for me various works to which I did not have access.] Rhyme and Grammar This is the opening stanza of one of Rav Yehudah Halevi’s (henceforth: Rihal) best known poems:יום…

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Non-Jewish Iconography in Hebrew Books

Non-Jewish Iconography in Hebrew Books

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As we have discussed on numerous occasions, Hebrew books contain a fair amount of non-Jewish iconography and imagery that is of non-Jewish origin. See, for example, here, here, here and here. Of course, Marvin Heller’s article on Mars and Minerva appearing on Hebrew title pages, Marvin Heller, “Mars and Minerva on the Hebrew Title-Page,” in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 98:3, Sept. 2004, reprinted in Heller’s collected articles Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (which…

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New Books from Biegeleisen – May 2009

New Books from Biegeleisen – May 2009

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See here for the previous lists. Halkhot Gedolot, Berlin-Hildesheimer ed., Otzreinu, Toronto, 2009, 2 vol., 22, 162, ; 652 pp.: This is a reprint of the important Geonic work based upon a different manuscript than the other printed editions. Additionally, it includes a new brief introduction and additions to the Seder Rav Amram Goan also published by Otzeinu. Kol Brisk, Jerusalem, 2009, 797 pp. This is a controversial work that explores the Brisk school and attempts to locate the current…

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A Preliminary Bibliography of Recent Works on Birkat ha-Chamah

A Preliminary Bibliography of Recent Works on Birkat ha-Chamah

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& Ish Sefer There are many works and articles on this topic and, as such, this is merely a preliminary attempt to deal with this burgeoning area of Jewish literature. [See also here]. For a great bibliographic note on the development of Seder Birkat ha-Chamah, including publications relating to birkat ha-chamah, see R. J. D. Bleich, Birkat ha-Chamah, pp.128-133. JNUL has put up a many of the editions of relating to subject here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,…

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Review: The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History, and Commentary

Review: The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History, and Commentary

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Rabbi Elli Fischer is a freelance translator living in Modiin, Israel. He maintains the “On the Contrary:Judasim with Comments Enabled ” blog. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. Given the thousands of haggadot that have been published over the years, and the dozens of new ones published each year, it is not easy for any single haggadah to separate itself from the others on the market. As a result, some new haggadot provide unique commentary, others contain…

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Upcoming Auctions

Upcoming Auctions

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Additionally, the first edition of two important siddurim are here as well. The Siddur Sha’ar ha-Shamayim from R. Isaiah Horowitz, the Shelah (lot no. 174) and R. Y. Emden’s Siddur, (lot no. 101). Another important first edition of a liturgical work is R. Meir Ibn Gabbai’s Tola’ath Ya’akov (lot no. 187) with the rare poem page. Another work that contains a rare page is the Hon Ashir from R. Immanuel Ricci. (Lot no. 195) This work, a commentary on the…

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R. David Nieto’s Matteh Dan, Life on Other Planets and Jewish Reactions to Copernicus

R. David Nieto’s Matteh Dan, Life on Other Planets and Jewish Reactions to Copernicus

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R. David Neito and the Mateh Dan R. David Nieto was born in 1654 in Venice and died in England in 1728. Aside for being a tremendous talmid hakham, Nieto also had degrees in science, philosophy, and was a medical doctor. He was a Rav, Dayan and Darshan in Leghorn for a while. He then was hired to be Rav of the Sefardi Kehila in England in 1701. Besides for being a multi-talented Rav, he was a prolific writer authoring…

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New Books from Biegeleisen

New Books from Biegeleisen

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While Eliezer is in the midst of preparing a comprehensive list of new seforim issued in the past months, I wanted to provide a shorter list of new seforim that I have recently received from Biegeleisen. All of these are of course available at Biegeleisen in Boro Park (and I assume elsewhere as well) and some will be reviewed in greater detail in the coming months. Batim le-Vadim, Yaakov Mosowitz, Beni Brak, 2008, 663 pp. a collection of laws and…

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Elliott Horowitz – Modern Amalekites From Adolf to Avigdor

Elliott Horowitz – Modern Amalekites From Adolf to Avigdor

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of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, described Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman [see here]. This is his fourth contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Modern Amalekites: From Adolf to Avigdor by Elliott Horowitz Well before the outbreak of World War II the Nazi regime in Germany came to be associated by many Jews with Israel’s ancient arch-enemy, Amalek. Perhaps the first to do so was the noted historian…

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Daniel J. Lasker – Birkat Ha-Hammah 5769

Daniel J. Lasker – Birkat Ha-Hammah 5769

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Daniel J. Lasker is Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, and is chair of the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought. His landmark work Jewish Philosophical Polemics against Christianity in the Middle Ages, originally published in 1977, was recently republished with a new introduction in 2007. This is Professor Lasker’s second post at the Seforim blog. His previous post about ve-ten tal u-matar li-verakha was entitled “December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the…

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