Upcoming Auction and Catalog
Asufa is having an auction next week on Monday Aug. 13, the catalog is available online here or in the US at Biegeleisen books in NY.
The Unintended Perils of Plagiarizing
While we have previously discussed several instances of plagiarism, I wanted to discuss one more which is interesting in its irony. Originally printed in Vienna, in 1820, Hut HaMeshulash b’Sha’arim, was reprinted in 1998. This sefer is actually three-seforim-in-one arranged based on the order of the parshiyot. The three are from a grandfather, father and son. They are, respectively, Sha’ar Asher by R. Asher Lemel HaLevi, chief rabbi of Eisenstadt; Sha’ar HaMayim by his son-in-law, R. Jehiel Mihel, also the…
Kest-Leibowitz Seforim
The Kest-Leibowitz Seforim are available online at large discounts at www.torahlab.org Kest-Leibowitz republishes many interesting seforim in small or paperback format. New Seforim are added daily to the site. All questions welcome! Please email your questions to yhaber@torahlab.org
Benjamin Richler — “Manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library: NEJ Redux”
Manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library:NEJ ReduxBy Benjamin Richler In a previous post at the Seforim blog, Shnayer Z. Leiman reviewed New Encyclopaedia Judaica (NEJ) and I should like to add a few observations from my admittedly narrow perspective as a student of Hebrew manuscripts and former director of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (IMHM), situated in the Manuscripts and Archives Wing on the ground floor of the Jewish National and University Library, of the Hebrew University…
Two Notes on Censorship and Plagiarism on the Ramban’s Commentary on the Torah
There are a significant number of seforim that are considered “classic” commentaries on the Torah, including, for example, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Ralbag and Ramban, et.al. In this post, we shall discuss the Ramban’s commentary on the Torah, as it is also on important work in the history of Hebrew printing. The first edition, published between 1469-72,[1] in Rome was the first book published in that city and is available online here [it was also reprinted by Mekor with a…
Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process
Forgery and the Halakhic Process by Marc B. Shapiro What is the role of academic learning in the determination of halakhah? In particular, I am referring to knowledge which is not available to the posek and which would affect his halakhic decision. This is, of course, a wide-ranging issue of which I will only discuss one aspect here, that relating to forgery. However, since the issue of the Mosaic text and R. Moshe Feinstein is relevant here, and I mentioned…