The Seforim Blog – Page 150 – All about Seforim – New and Old, and Jewish Bibliography

Hunted Bears, Cantonists and Nazi Victims

May 1, 2008 admin Comments 1 comment

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

April 16, 2008 admin Comments 1 comment

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

April 9, 2008 admin Comments 3 comments

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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A Puzzling Example of Plagiarism

April 3, 2008 admin Comments 0 Comment

One of the strange facts connected with plagiarism is that, at times, it is hard to discern what the motivation is to plagiarize. For example, we have seen a person today that continuously plagiarizes entire books even though he is well-known and, if the approbations on his books are any indication, well-respected. Still, he has plagiarized, in their entirety at least three books and seems to continue to do so. While monetary gain may be a reason, I don’t see…

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Marc B. Shapiro – Rabbis and Communism

March 31, 2008 admin Comments 6 comments

Rabbis and Communism By Marc B. Shapiro I had intended my newest post to be on the Rav’s famous essay “Confrontation,” but I recently received the latest issue of Tradition with Rabbi Yitzchak Blau’s article “Rabbinic Responses to Communism,” so let me make a few comments about it. First, I must say that it is a good read, like all of Blau’s writing, and I was impressed with the range of topics he attempts to tackle. My only suggestion for…

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Pini Dunner — Unknown Picture of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, c.1930s

March 31, 2008 admin Comments 0 Comment

Pini Dunner B.A (Hons), formerly rabbi of London’s Saatchi Synagogue, is an avid collector of polemical and controversial Hebraica, with a very large, diverse private collection of such material. Many items in his collection are unknown and unrecorded, and relate to long forgotten, obscure controversies. This is Pini Dunner’s second post at the Seforim blog; his first post, “Mercaz Agudat Ha-Rabbanim Be-Lita, Kovno, 1931,” is available here. Photographs of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l, are numerous…

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