Shavuah ha-Sefer 2008: A Recommended Reading List

Shavuah ha-Sefer 2008: A Recommended Reading List

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Shavuah ha-Sefer 2008: A Recommended Reading List by Eliezer Brodt Book week just began in Eretz Yisroel. As I wrote last year Every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer-book week. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out for the sale. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and other places have most of the…

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Lag Ba-Omer and Upsherins in Recent Jewish literature: Revisionist History and Borrowing and Plagiarism

Lag Ba-Omer and Upsherins in Recent Jewish literature: Revisionist History and Borrowing and Plagiarism

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Lag Ba-Omer and Upsherins in Recent Jewish literature: Revisionist History and Borrowing and PlagiarismBy Eliezer Brodt In this post I would like to touch upon some of the topics relating to Lag Ba-Omer through a discussion of the latest volume of R. Tuviah Freund’s Moadim le-Simcha. By way of introduction, in the past few years, the field minhaghim, specifically the research and investigation of sources and reasons for custom has expanded exponentially. To be sure, from early rishonim and onwards…

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Sale On Hebrew Book Harddrives

Sale On Hebrew Book Harddrives

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This year the sale will be 33% off the regular price of Otzar HaChomah. The sale runs from May 13 through June 7. The prices are as follows:Full version (25,800 vol.) reg. 2275 sale 1520Bnei Torah version (24,500 vol.) reg 2050 sale 1370Gemara v’Halacha (18,700 vol.) reg 1525 sale 1020Tanach u’Midrash (17,200 vol.) reg. 1525 sale 1020also an additional 2,400 from Kehos Publishing is $70All of the above include a “search engine” which is very good. It also has the…

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Hunted Bears, Cantonists and Nazi Victims

Hunted Bears, Cantonists and Nazi Victims

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by Yitzhak, בין דין לדין.I thank Dan Rabinowitz for graciously allowing me to post this essay.Hunted Bears This is the cover image of the Gary Larson collection Beyond The Far Side: I have long found this cartoon profoundly depressing, in its humorous but acute portrayal of the moral degradation of which we are capable. עור בעד עור, וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו 1; the desperate bear grins inanely as he attempts to persuade the hunter to shoot his companion…

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Initial Bibliography of Important Haggadah Literature

Initial Bibliography of Important Haggadah Literature

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Initial Bibliography of Important Haggadah Literatureby Eliezer Brodt All are aware of the proliferation of Haggadahs. Every year more and more are published thus making it difficult to know which versions are worthwhile. Thus, in this post I intend to focus on a listing a small bibliographical list of seforim relating to the Haggadah that are, in my mind, some of the most important ones. In light of the fact I am going to select a few Haggadahs from the…

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Marc B. Shapiro – Responses to Comments and Elaborations on Previous Posts II

Marc B. Shapiro – Responses to Comments and Elaborations on Previous Posts II

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Responses to Comments and Elaborations of Previous Posts II by Marc B. Shapiro In a previous post I wrote as follows: In Kitvei Ramban, vol. 1, p. 413, Chavel prints the introduction to Milhamot ha-Shem. The Ramban writes: וקנאתי לרבנו הגדול רבי יצחק אלפאסי זכרונו לברכה קנאה גדולה, מפני שראיתי לחולקים על דבריו שלא השאירו לו כפי רב מחלוקותיהם ענין נכון בכל מה שדבר, ולא דבר הגון בכל מה שפרש, ולא פסק ראוי בכל מה שפסק, לא נשאר עם דבריהם…

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