Interview with Professor Lawrence Kaplan

Interview with Professor Lawrence Kaplan

Comments 0 Comment

Interview with Professor Lawrence Kaplan Conducted by Baruch Pelta on December 22, 2008 at the 40th Association for Jewish Studies Conference Transcribed Using the Services of Olivia Wiznitzer Co-edited by Lawrence Kaplan and Baruch Pelta    Lawrence Kaplan received his BA from Yeshiva College, his MA and PhD from Harvard University, and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He has taught at McGill University since 1972, and is currently Professor of Rabbinics and Jewish Philosophy in its…

Read More Read More

Wine, Women and Song – Part III

Wine, Women and Song – Part III

Comments 1 comment

Wine, Women and Song: Some Remarks On Poetry and Grammar – Part III by Yitzhak of בין דין לדין The previous two parts: Part I, Part II. Lasciviousness Rambam In the first part of this essay, we have discussed the offenses of literature against grammar; a far more incendiary issue is the question of lasciviousness.  Judaism seems to have historically been somewhat ambivalent on the matter; it is an ineluctable fact that many of our most celebrated poets, particularly of…

Read More Read More

Shemot Hakhamim & Its Ommissions

Shemot Hakhamim & Its Ommissions

Comments 1 comment

על ספר שמות חכמים, קיצור תולדות רבותינו הראשונים, אברהם מאיר וייס, בני ברק, תשס”טמאתעקביא שמש Abstract:  A new book, a history of Rabbis and their books from the Geonic and Rishonim periods, Shemot Hakhamim, Kitzur Toldot Rabotenu ha-Rishonim, while attempting to be comprehensive falls short on that account.  In particular, the failure of the author to use “academic” works diminishes the value of this book.  While A. Shamesh is willing to cede that attempting to read the entire corpus of…

Read More Read More

Eliezer Brodt: Corrections and Clarifications

Eliezer Brodt: Corrections and Clarifications

Comments 1 comment

  Corrections and Clarifications on Two Editions of R. Chaim Berlin’s Responsa: An Egregious Example of Censorship by: Eliezer Brodt           From time to time I get feed back about some of my previous posts some good some bad – aside from the standard criticism of poor grammar, editing or transliterating, all of which are my fault entirely. The blog does not have a full time editor (its all on a volunteer basis), and the goal of the editors,…

Read More Read More

Women, Simchat Torah, and Censorship

Women, Simchat Torah, and Censorship

Comments 7 comments

Women, Simchat Torah, and Censorship By: Eliezer BrodtA recent book, Mi-pehem, (Bnei Brak,2008), collects interviews that were conducted with various Gedolim. One interview was conducted with Rebbetzin Ginsburg the daughter of R. Yechezel Levenstein. In the course of this interview she described the Simchat Torah celebration at the Mir in Europe:אבל שמחת תורה בישיבה היה משהומיוחד. הנשים עמדו בפינת בית המדרש מאחורי מחיצה, ומחכות בהתרגשות לתחילתההקפות! (מפיהם, עמ’ 199). According to this interview, women in the Mir were behind the…

Read More Read More

Joshua Berman: What Orthodoxy Can Gain From Academic Biblical Studies

Joshua Berman: What Orthodoxy Can Gain From Academic Biblical Studies

Comments 0 Comment

  What Orthodoxy Can Gain From Academic Biblical Studies: The Torah as Political Theory[1] by: Joshua BermanJoshua Berman is a lecturer in Tanakh at Bar-Ilan University and an Associate Fellow at the Shalem Center. He is the author of Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought (Oxford University Press, 2008) which was the National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Scholarship for 2008.      In ways that were astonishingly new and counter-intuitive, in ways that served the purposes of…

Read More Read More