Torah mi-Sinai and More by Marc B. Shapiro 1. Some people have requested that I do more posts on theological matters, as I have done in the past. So let me begin with what I think will be a three-part series on Torah mi-Sinai. In a previous post, available here, I mentioned R. Shlomo Fisher’s rejection of R. Moshe Feinstein’s view that R. Yehudah he-Hasid’s “biblical criticism” was not authentic. As R. Fisher put it, R. Moshe assumed that even in the…
Two New Seforim for sale1 By: Eliezer Brodt It is with great pleasure that I announce two seforim I have just printed: כוסו של אליהו הנביא, נפתולי מנהג בהתרקמותו, ר’ יהודה אבידע זצ”ל, נדפס לראשונה בירושלים תשי”ח, ועתה יצא לאור במהדורת צילום עם הוספות שונות ומפתח ותיקונים שנמצאו בגנזי המחבר ע”י אליעזר יהודה בראדט, כריכה רכה, 84 עמודים. קונדיטון, מזיגה ראשונה, ר’ יחיאל גולדהבר, לשאלת חרם על ספרד משפטיך תהום רבה אסון: הטיטאניק מנקודת מבטו של העולם היהודי, כריכה קשה,…
New seforim, books and some random comments [Updated] By: Eliezer Brodt Here is a list of some new seforim and books printed in the past few months. 1. מערכת האלקות כולל פירוש מנחת יהודה להר’ יהודה חייט ופ’ פ”ז השלם [על פי כת”י], 301 עמודים, + מפתחות ועוד 25 עמודים 2. רבנו שמעיה השושני, [מגדולי דורו של רש”י], סוד מעשה המשכן עם מ”מ והערות ע”י ר’ גור אריה הרציג, 20 עמודים 3. ספר הכוונת [ישן] להר’ חיים ויטל עם הגהות…
Talmudic Humor and Its Discontents by Ezra Brand In honor of Purim, I’d like to discuss a few aspects of humor in the Talmud[1]. But first, a short overview of topic of Jewish humor in general. A lot has been written about Jewish humor[2]. A very good overview of Jewish humor, in general, is that of Avner Ziv in the second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, under the entry “Humor”[3]. However, most of the piece is about Jewish humor from the…
Identifying Achashverosh and Esther in Secular Sources By Mitchell First This article is a summary of a longer article which will appear in his forthcoming book Esther Unmasked: Solving Eleven Mysteries of the Jewish Holidays and Liturgy (Kodesh Press), pp. 129-167. In this article, we will explain how scholars were finally able to identify Achashverosh in secular sources. We will also show that Esther can be identified in secular sources as well. Finally, we will utilize these sources to shed…
Book Review[1] by Dovid Sears Bezalel Naor, The Kabbalah of Relation (Spring Valley, NY: Orot, 2012) Before discussing Rabbi Naor’s new book, I must say that anything with his name on the cover should be of interest to any explorer of Jewish mystical tradition. Despite some twenty first-rate scholarly works in English and Hebrew, Bezalel Naor remains a “hidden light,” perhaps too brilliant for many to gaze upon directly. He is one of the leading intellectuals in the traditional world…