Using a Colophon to Find a Shidduch by Eli Genauer There has been much talk lately about the so called Shidduch crisis. Various initiatives have been proposed to address this problem, all of which are well meaning and well thought out. Many might be surprised to learn that an interesting approach was suggested by a 12 year old girl in the town of Frankfurt on Oder way back in 1699. This approach was based on a Pasuk in Yirmiyahu which…
The Origin of Ta‘anit Esther By Mitchell First Introduction The origin of this fast has always been a mystery. A fast on the 13th of Adar is not mentioned in the Megillah. Nor is such a fast mentioned in Tannaitic or Amoraic literature. Megillat Ta‘anit, compiled in the first century C.E., includes the 13th of Adar as a day upon which Jews were prohibited from fasting. A widespread view today is that the fast arose as a post-Talmudic custom intended…
New Writings from R. Kook and Assorted Comments, part 3 Marc B. Shapiro Continued from here. As I have dealt in this post with Maimonides and the Genesis story, it is as good a time as any to mention what I believe it to be an error that is repeated very often. I saw it most recently in Nathan Aviezer’s article “When Torah and Science Collide” (Tradition, Fall 2009). He writes as follows: Did God create the universe? Seemingly a…
International Book Week 2011 by Eliezer Brodt This week is the International book week in Jerusalem at Binyanei Ha‘uma. Here is a list for some of the new titles for sale. Besides for these new titles there many other great discounts, for example Bialik is having some nice sales on some classic books much cheaper than their normal sale prices. הספרייה הלאומית בעקבות הבעל שם טוב: מאתיים וחמישים שנה למותו של הבעש”ט, מאתיים שנה למות ר’ נחמן מברסלב, תערוכה מאוצרות…
מאת עזרא בראנד ידוע הוא לכל יודע ספר המשנה תורה שאחת מהמידות שהמשנה תורה נדרש בה היא ההשמטה ממנו. כמעט כל מפרשי הרמב”ם הניחו כיסוד שהרמב”ם כוון לכלול בספרו כל התורה שבעל פה (כמו שהזכיר הרמב”ם בהקדמתו למשנה תורה), ואם יש דין חסר ממנו יש דברים בגו[1]. אמנם גם לאחר שהוכרה ההשמטה בהרבה מקרים קשה לדעת מה ללמוד מזה; אם להחמיר או להקל, לטמא או לטהר, לפסול או להכשיר (ולעתים קרובות נחלקו בזה המפרשים), אבל הכל מודים שניתן ללמוד מכל…
Kestenbaum & Co. will be holding an auction next Thursday, Feb. 24th. On its site, it provides some highlights, and I wanted to point out a few others. Additionally, one can download the entire catalog by visiting the site. The first edition of R. Yosef Albo’s Sefer ha-Ikarim, Soncino 1485, being an incunabula is of course of note (lot 7). But, the colophon of this work is especially noteworthy. The colophon ends with “Ki mi-Tzion teitze Torah u-devar Hashem mi-Soncino.”…