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A Note Regarding the Recitation of Brikh Shemei

A Note Regarding the Recitation of Brikh Shemei

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Rabbi Yehiel Goldhaber of Jerusalem is the author of the (currently) two-volume authoritative work on the customs of the Mattersdorf Kehilla entitled Minhagei Ha-Kehillot (2004) and is at work on additional volumes, as well as on a complete history of the area and rabbonim of the Mattersdorf Kehilla. He is also completing a volume on coffee. In addition to his authoritative articles on Kabbalat Shabbat in Beit Aharon ve-Yisrael, Rabbi Goldhaber has published many articles on the topics of halakha…

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Aryeh A. Frimer Review of Daniel Sperber’s Darka shel Halakha

Aryeh A. Frimer Review of Daniel Sperber’s Darka shel Halakha

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Rabbi Prof. Aryeh A. Frimer is the Ethel and David Resnick Professor of Active Oxygen Chemistry at Bar Ilan University. He has lectured and published widely on various aspects of “Women and Halakha.” Among his many articles, Rabbi Frimer is the author of “Women and Minyan,” Tradition, 23:4 (Summer 1988): 54-77, available online here; “Women’s ‘Megilla’ Reading,” in Ora Wiskind Elper, ed., Traditions and Celebrations for the Bat Mitzvah (Urim Publications: Jerusalem, 2003), 281-304, available online here (PDF); “Guarding the…

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SEFORIM HARD DRIVES SALES UPDATE etc.

SEFORIM HARD DRIVES SALES UPDATE etc.

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The Otzrot HaTorah (AKA “The Morgenstern Library”) is now ON SALE thru June 30. The library contains 13,000 volumes in the “regular” version and 14,000 volumes in the “expanded” edition. The SALE prices are as follows: Expanded edition: Reg. price $1990 SALE price: $1480. Standard edition: Reg. price $1480 SALE price: $1160. There is a payment plan of (up to) 20 monthly payments. Payments can be made by cash, check or credit card. For those making a one time payment…

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Shavuah ha-Sefer 2008: A Recommended Reading List

Shavuah ha-Sefer 2008: A Recommended Reading List

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Book week just began in Eretz Yisroel. As I wrote last year Every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer-book week. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out for the sale. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and other places have most of the secular publishing houses. Many publishing houses release new titles specifically…

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Lag Ba-Omer and Upsherins in Recent Jewish literature: Revisionist History and Borrowing and Plagiarism

Lag Ba-Omer and Upsherins in Recent Jewish literature: Revisionist History and Borrowing and Plagiarism

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In this post I would like to touch upon some of the topics relating to Lag Ba-Omer through a discussion of the latest volume of R. Tuviah Freund’s Moadim le-Simcha. By way of introduction, in the past few years, the field minhaghim, specifically the research and investigation of sources and reasons for custom has expanded exponentially. To be sure, from early rishonim and onwards we have many books discussing minhag. But, only more only more recently, did the systematic study…

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Sale On Hebrew Book Harddrives

Sale On Hebrew Book Harddrives

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This year the sale will be 33% off the regular price of Otzar HaChomah. The sale runs from May 13 through June 7. The prices are as follows: Full version (25,800 vol.) reg. 2275 sale 1520 Bnei Torah version (24,500 vol.) reg 2050 sale 1370 Gemara v’Halacha (18,700 vol.) reg 1525 sale 1020 Tanach u’Midrash (17,200 vol.) reg. 1525 sale 1020 also an additional 2,400 from Kehos Publishing is $70 All of the above include a “search engine” which is…

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Hunted Bears, Cantonists and Nazi Victims

Hunted Bears, Cantonists and Nazi Victims

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Yitzhak, בין דין לדין. I thank Dan Rabinowitz for graciously allowing me to post this essay. Hunted Bears This is the cover image of the Gary Larson collection Beyond The Far Side: I have long found this cartoon profoundly depressing, in its humorous but acute portrayal of the moral degradation of which we are capable. עור בעד עור, וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו 1; the desperate bear grins inanely as he attempts to persuade the hunter to shoot his…

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Initial Bibliography of Important Haggadah Literature

Initial Bibliography of Important Haggadah Literature

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All are aware of the proliferation of Haggadahs. Every year more and more are published thus making it difficult to know which versions are worthwhile. Thus, in this post I intend to focus on a listing a small bibliographical list of seforim relating to the Haggadah that are, in my mind, some of the most important ones. In light of the fact I am going to select a few Haggadahs from the many, a caveat of sorts is in order….

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A Puzzling Example of Plagiarism

A Puzzling Example of Plagiarism

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One of the strange facts connected with plagiarism is that, at times, it is hard to discern what the motivation is to plagiarize. For example, we have seen a person today that continuously plagiarizes entire books even though he is well-known and, if the approbations on his books are any indication, well-respected. Still, he has plagiarized, in their entirety at least three books and seems to continue to do so. While monetary gain may be a reason, I don’t see…

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Marc B. Shapiro – Rabbis and Communism

Marc B. Shapiro – Rabbis and Communism

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I had intended my newest post to be on the Rav’s famous essay “Confrontation,” but I recently received the latest issue of Tradition with Rabbi Yitzchak Blau’s article “Rabbinic Responses to Communism,” so let me make a few comments about it. First, I must say that it is a good read, like all of Blau’s writing, and I was impressed with the range of topics he attempts to tackle. My only suggestion for improvement would have been to examine the…

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Pini Dunner — Unknown Picture of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, c.1930s

Pini Dunner — Unknown Picture of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, c.1930s

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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 Pini Dunner’s second post at the Seforim blog; his first post, “Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931,” is available here. Photographs of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l, are numerous and ubiquitous….

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A Conspiracy Theory To Explain A Racy Title Page

A Conspiracy Theory To Explain A Racy Title Page

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We have discussed on multiple occasions the use of illustration of nudes to adorn the title pages of Hebrew books. It appears, again as we have seen before, that even though the appearance of such illustrations are really unremarkable, some will go to great lengths to either expunge or, in this case, explain away the appearance of such illustrations. In the April, 2008, Jerusalem Judaica auction catalog (provided below) they have a rather rare work of R. Yitzhak Hiyut (c….

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The “Holy Woman” in Jewish Literature

The “Holy Woman” in Jewish Literature

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Any discussion regarding prostitution in Jewish literature starts with the various mentions in Tanach. Obviously, some are clearer than others, compare the case of Rachav with that of Tamar. But we will leave those comparisons for the readers of the Seforim blog who consider themselves biblical exegetes. Additionally, we will not focus on the Talmudic or overly legalistic discussions regarding prostitution. Instead, starting in Medieval times, we will attempt to document some of the mentions of prostitution and its effect,…

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Nancy Sinkoff — Benjamin Franklin and the Virtues of Mussar

Nancy Sinkoff — Benjamin Franklin and the Virtues of Mussar

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has written a letter to The Forward, available below to readers of the Seforim blog. (It has not yet appeared in The Forward.) Related to the letter below, is Prof. Nancy Sinkoff, “Benjamin Franklin in Jewish Eastern Europe: Cultural Appropriation in the Age of the Enlightenment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 61:1 (January, 2000): 133-152, available in PDF courtesy of her Rutgers University faculty page, see here (PDF). This is Prof. Sinkoff’s first contribution to the Seforim blog. We…

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