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Kuntress Ha-Teshuvot Review

Kuntress Ha-Teshuvot Review

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I have previously briefly mentioned a couple of problems with the new work Kuntress Ha-Teshuvot haHadash, now I would like to give a full review. First, I am no expert in the teshuva literature, that being said I was somewhat disappointed with this book. The book first contains a long introduction into the teshuva literature in general. It discusses such topics as the importance of the literature, the pervasiveness or lack there of, as well as censorship in the teshuvot…

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R. Y. Emden, Hassidim & the Vilna Shas

R. Y. Emden, Hassidim & the Vilna Shas

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The Vilna edition of the Shas printed by the Romm Press has become the standard edition of the Shas. This Shas had many important additions and corrections that prior ones did not. One of those was the inclusion of the comments of R. Jacob Emden. However, it appears that one comment, a rather important one was left out. R. Emden in Gitten page 60 made a comment regarding the Hassidim, this does not appear in the Vilna Shas. In the…

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Note to Email subscribers

Note to Email subscribers

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Those who subscribe via email, the prior service, bloglet, appears to be dead. I have now switched to feedblitz. If you have already subscribed you need not do anything you have been automatically switched. However, if you would like to subscribe it is on the left side of the page.

The Meshumad Hazzan

The Meshumad Hazzan

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As some of you know I have an interest in meshumdim and their wide affect on modern day Judaism. Thus, Yehoshua Mondshine’s latest installment in his series on corrupted stories is especially good. Some may recall our earlier post on Mondshine’s earlier piece about the “classic” ba’al teshuva story and its root in a Shai Agnon story, I think this one is equally as good. This story is a Habad story and it basically goes like this. There was a…

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R. Reuven Margulies II

R. Reuven Margulies II

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I have already discussed the most recent book of R. Margulies and provided a bibliography of his works, I now want to turn to a brief biography of him. R. Margulies was born in 1889 and was known, from the time of his youth, as extremly erudite. Although he recieved ordination, he did not become a Rabbi and instead opened a bookstore in Lemberg. It is said that although his store was always full of talmidi hakhmim it was unclear…

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R. Reuven Margulies I

R. Reuven Margulies I

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First, I want to post a bibliography of R. Margulies’s works and then I shall discuss some biogrpahical details in the next post. This bibliography is not a scientific one in that I do not attempt to list every edition. Rather, I am listing just the works and some bibliogrpahical information as I see fit. Most of this information comes from Naftali Ben Menachem’s bibliogprahy of R. Margulies’s books which was printed in Sefer Margolious. 1) Toldot Adam (Lemberg 1912)…

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“New” R. Reuven Margoliyot Book

“New” R. Reuven Margoliyot Book

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Mossad HaRav Kook has published Peninem u-Margoliyot which is a collection of articles by R. Reuven Margoliyot. These articles originally appeared in the journal Sinai and are now republished in a single volume. It seems that the impetus to collect and publish these was not so that people could have access to them (although perhaps this played a small role). Instead, Mossad HaRav Kook was forced, as it was, to publish these. In the last few years, in honor of…

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Eruv Controversy and Website

Eruv Controversy and Website

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There is an excellent site discussing various issues with eruvin, many of them contemporary (especially in light of the seforim which have been published on the topic in the last couple of years, many dealing with the Brooklyn controversy). Today, he has the second part of his series on the St. Louis eruv controversy which includes a rather fascinating discussion regarding two seforim printed at the turn of the 20th century. Both of those seforim are available online, if one…

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Hatikvah, Shir HaMa’alot, & Censorship

Hatikvah, Shir HaMa’alot, & Censorship

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There is a rather interesting teshuva which appears in R. Avrohom Weinfeld’s Lev Avrohom. In it he discusses whether one can recite Shir HaMa’alot to the tune of Hatikvah. He first explains that this question involves the question of whether a tune from an impure source is appropriate to use. He begins by discussing the two well-known teshuvot (the Teshuvot haBakh and the Krach shel Romi) dealing with using non-Jewish tunes for Jewish songs. However, without getting into all of…

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Errors in New Kuntras HaTeshuvot

Errors in New Kuntras HaTeshuvot

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As some have already noted, there is a completely new edition of Boaz Cohen’s Kuntras HaTeshuvot. This edition edited by Shmuel Glick totally reworks Cohen’s work. Supposedly this new work benefited from many subsequent bibliographies as well as the Institute for Jewish Bibliography. While this is an vast improvement in my quick read (I only received it today) I was amazed at what this lacked and in my mind errors. The first is for the entry for the Besamim Rosh…

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Buring the Hametz and the Goan Book

Buring the Hametz and the Goan Book

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To the left are pictures what are supposed to be the Klausenberger Rebbe burning the book HaGaon (discussed here previously) with the Hametz. Additionally the final picture is him saying the Yehi Ratzon from the Ateresh Yehoshua when burning books of heresy. If you click on the images you can see them enlarged. Here is the full text of the Yehi Ratzon יהי רצון מלפניך ה’ אלוקי ואלוקי אבותי, כשם שאנכי באתי לבער את ספרי החיצונים והמשכילים אלה, כן יסור…

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Talk on the Valmadonna Trust Library

Talk on the Valmadonna Trust Library

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JACK LUNZER, Custodian THE VALMADONNA TRUST LIBRARY Opening remarks by Arthur Kiron, University of Pennsylvania. The Valmadonna Trust Library, located in London, is the world’s foremost private collection of rare Hebraica and the most comprehensive collection of early books printed in Italy. THURSDAY, APRIL 27 at 7:00 pm Center for Jewish History – 15 West 16 Street – New York City For more information see here

Old Haggadot for Free

Old Haggadot for Free

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Many of the haggadot that we have mentioned previously as well as many other interesting ones are available for free in there entirety at the JNUL’s site here. All you need is a printer (just make sure to switch to landscape printing for the double paged ones) and you too can have a copy of 1482 haggadah, 1526 Prague haggdah (first fully illustrated haggadah), Venice Ladino haggadah, 1833 English translation, or the 1844 haggadah printed in Calcutta, India to name…

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Haggadah, First Hebrew Map, and Forgery

Haggadah, First Hebrew Map, and Forgery

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One of the most beautifully done haggadot is that of the Amsterdam, 1695. This haggadah for the first time used copperplate instead of woodcuts to produce the illustrations. Consequently, the illustrations are sharper and more intricate. The illustrator, Avrohom bar Ya’akov mimispchto shel Avrohom avenu, as is apparent from his name, was a convert. Before converting he was a preacher. His edition of the haggadah was special not only for the copperplate and the illustrations, but for a specific illustration,…

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Review of Reckless Rites

Review of Reckless Rites

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While it is a bit out of season, I wanted to review Elliott Horowitz’s new book Reckless Rites. In this book, subtitled “Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence,” everything is viewed through the prism of the violence inflicted by the Jews upon their enemies at the end of Esther. While arguably, the violence at the end is only a minor part of the story for some that aspect has clouded everything about the Book of Esther and Purim. First…

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