Recommended Summer Reading

Recommended Summer Reading

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Recommended Summer Reading By Eliezer Brodt There are various “agendas” in the following post. One goal is to continue to inform the Seforim Blog readership of some of the recently published seforim and provide them with descriptive reviews. Another goal is to make some of them available for sale; the proceeds help support the Seforim Blog. Summertime affords some people a bit more time to relax and read a little. So even though book buying\selling has been dying, seforim &…

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Review: Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut, edited by Shlomo Zuckier

Review: Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut, edited by Shlomo Zuckier

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Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut. Edited by Shlomo Zuckier. Yeshiva University Press, 2022. 516 pages. ISBN 978-1-60280-398-5. REVIEWED BY BEZALEL NAOR When the ‘Ilui of Denenburg was in Lublin, he visited the Rabbi of the city, the Gaon Rabbi Shneur Zalman [Fradkin]. Upon parting, he asked him if there is to be found in Lublin another gaon. Rabbi Shneur Zalman replied: “There resides here Rabbi Zadok HaKohen, a great gaon.” The ‘Ilui of Denenburg went to the “Kohen,” who…

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On the Ger Tzedek of Vilnius

On the Ger Tzedek of Vilnius

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On the Ger Tzedek of Vilnius By Yosef Vilner This year the holiday of Shavuot occurred right after Shabbat. There were many meals and lively conversations around the table. During one these talks my daughter mentioned a story she read in a weekly supplement to the Hebrew edition of the Orthodox Jewish newspaper Hamodia. The story was about Polish nobleman Graf Potocki, a convert to Judaism who was convicted of apostacy by the Catholic Church and burned alive at the…

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Rashi BaMidbar 22:9- “Taut Sofrim” or “Agadot Chalukot?”

Rashi BaMidbar 22:9- “Taut Sofrim” or “Agadot Chalukot?”

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Rashi BaMidbar 22:9- “Taut Sofrim” or “Agadot Chalukot?” By Eli Genauer Summary: Here we find polar opposite approaches to a Stirah in Rashi’s commentary to the Torah. One approach maintains that Rashi used two different Midrashic sources for his contradictory comments, and the other solves the Stirah by saying that one of the comments attributed to Rashi is actually a Taut Sofrim. There is a very perplexing verse towards the beginning of Parshat Balak: ט:וַיָּבֹא אֱלֹקים אֶל-בִּלְעָם וַיֹּאמֶר מִי הָאֲנָשִׁים…

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Guide and Review of Online Resources – 2022 – Part III

Guide and Review of Online Resources – 2022 – Part III

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Guide and Review of Online Resources – 2022 – Part III By Ezra Brand Ezra Brand is an independent researcher based in Tel Aviv. He has an MA from Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University in Medieval Jewish History, where he focused his research on 13th and 14th century sefirotic Kabbalah. He is interested in using digital and computational tools in historical research. He has contributed a number of times previously to the Seforim Blog (tag), and a selection of…

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Tarnopol: A short-lived early 19th century Hebrew press

Tarnopol: A short-lived early 19th century Hebrew press

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Tarnopol: A short-lived early 19th century Hebrew press by Marvin J. Heller[1] The blossoms have appeared in the land, The time of your song has arrived, and the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land. The green figs form on the fig tree. The vines in blossom give off fragrance. Arise, my darling; My fair one, come away! “O my dove, in the cranny of the rocks. Hidden by the cliff. Let me see your face, Let me…

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