The Religious-Zionist Manifesto of Rabbi Yehudah Leib Don Yahya

The Religious-Zionist Manifesto of Rabbi Yehudah Leib Don Yahya

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In 1901 there appeared in Vilna a 32-page booklet entitled, Ha-Tsiyoniyut mi-nekudat hashkafat ha-dat (Zionism from the Viewpoint of Religion). The author was Yehudah Don Yahya. The final eight pages of the work contain a supplement (Milu’im) by one Ben-Zion Vilner, criticizing the anti-Zionism of the Rebbe of Lubavitch. (One ventures that “Ben-Zion Vilner” is a pseudonym.) What is remarkable about this manifesto that argues that Zionism is totally compatible with traditional Judaism, is that the author, Rabbi Yehudah Leib…

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Towards a Bibliography of seforim related to Shavuos and Megilas Rus (both new and old) – updated

Towards a Bibliography of seforim related to Shavuos and Megilas Rus (both new and old) – updated

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Originally posted May 24, 2012 – Updated June 3, 2019 In this post I intend to start a list towards a more complete bibliography to the various seforim (new and old) and articles related to Shavuos (including many links). I hope to update it in the future. When learning the Halachos of Shavuos, one is struck how the Tur does not mention anything special for Shavuos except for instructions related to davening and Keriyas Hatorah. The only custom he mentions…

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Reflecting on When the Arukh haShulhan on Orach Chaim was Actually Written

Reflecting on When the Arukh haShulhan on Orach Chaim was Actually Written

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& Shlomo C. Pill Rabbi Michael Broyde is a Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and the Projects Director at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Pill is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish, Islamic, and American Law and Religion at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. They are writing a work titled…

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Special book offer: Besamim Rosh

Special book offer: Besamim Rosh

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One of the most famous forgeries in Jewish literature is the Shu”t Besamim Rosh. This work was brought to print by Saul Berlin in 1793. Shortly after it was detected as a forgery. Over the years the Seforim Blog has featured many essays about this work (here, here, here, here, here, here). For a valuable post about the subject see here. For some very recent work on the BR see the three-part series by Rabbi Chaim Tessler, (PDF’s available upon…

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The Haftarot for Behar and Behukkotai

The Haftarot for Behar and Behukkotai

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The old Babylonian practice was to read Jeremiah 16:19 as the haftara for Parashat Behar and Ezekiel 34 for Parashat Behukkotai, and this is attested to in most of the relevant Cairo Geniza fragments. One of them, Cambridge T-S B15.4, aside from also indicating this, is written in the Oriental Hebrew script and vocalized with the Babylonian supralinear system, indicating its antiquity. Moreover, these haftarot are listed by R’ Shlomo ben Natan, and their verses are the basis for the…

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Message from Professor Haym Soloveitchik

Message from Professor Haym Soloveitchik

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In the newly-published issue of the Jewish Quartlerly Review (Spring 109:2), there is an exchange between Robert Brody and Haym Soloveitchik on the “Third Yeshivah of Bavel” (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/40354). Professor Soloveitchik’s reply is in two parts: Part I in JQR and the continuation–Part II– on his website.. At the conclusion of his reply in JQR, he refers the readers to Part II on his website: “Those interested in my replies to all of Brody’s other objections can turn to my website,…

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Three New Books

Three New Books

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In this post I would like to briefly describe three new works, which are hot off the press. For a short time, copies of these three works can be purchased through me for a special price. Part of the proceeds will be going to support the efforts of the Seforim Blog. Contact me at Eliezerbrodt@gmail.com for more information. The first title is printed by the World Congress of Jewish Studies: פירוש רש”י לספר משלי, ההדירה והוסיפה מבוא והערות ליסה פרדמן…

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Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1

Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1

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1. In my last post here, in discussing R. Joseph Hertz’s suggested alternative text for Maoz Tzur, I wrote that this suggestion “was simply made up by Hertz or perhaps suggested by an unnamed collaborator on his siddur commentary.” At least one person wondered if I had anything in mind when I wrote about “an unnamed collaborator.” Indeed, these words were chosen deliberately. I do not know anything specifically about collaborators on the siddur commentary. However, we do know about…

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Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2019, New Rabbi Tovia Preschel volumes & Beis Havaad Convention

Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2019, New Rabbi Tovia Preschel volumes & Beis Havaad Convention

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For over thirty years, beginning on Isru Chag of Pesach, Mossad HaRav Kook publishing house has made a big sale on all of their publications, dropping prices considerably (some books are marked as low as 65% off). Each year they print around twenty new titles and introduce them at this time. This year they printed close to thirty new volumes. They also reprint some of their older, out of print titles. Some years important works are printed; others not as…

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Book announcement: Ta’aroch Lifonai Shulchan by Rabbi Eitam Henkin, H”YD

Book announcement: Ta’aroch Lifonai Shulchan by Rabbi Eitam Henkin, H”YD

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הרב איתם שמעון הנקין הי”ד, “תערך לפני שלחן: חייו, זמנו, ומפעלו של הרי”ם עפשטיין בעל ערוך השלחן,” הוצאת קורן 413 עמודים It’s with great pleasure that I announce the second printing of the book Ta’aroch Lifonai Shulchan by R’ Eitam Henkin H”YD, published by Maggid Press. I had the unique privilege to edit this work, together with R’ Eitam’s special,learned parents. The first printing of this book was issued on January 2 earlier this year and sold out shortly after…

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Book announcement: Special sale

Book announcement: Special sale

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In this post I would like to briefly describe three new works printed by Schocken Institute, two of which were printed in the past year and the third is hot off the press – out just three days ago. For a short time, copies of these three works can be purchased through me for a special price. Contact me at Eliezerbrodt@gmail.com. חמודות מצרים, יד ושם לרבותינו שתשובותיהם לא נקבצו בספר, א, תשובות חכמי מצרים האחרונים מגניזת קהיר, שמואל גליק, 474…

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Hebrew printing in Altdorf: A brief Christian-Hebraist Phenomenon

Hebrew printing in Altdorf: A brief Christian-Hebraist Phenomenon

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Altdorf is remembered in Jewish history, when it is recalled at all, for the small number of Hebrew, Hebrew/Latin books printed there, beginning in the seventeenth century. Our Altdorf (old village), Altdorf bei Nürnberg, Bavaria, is one of several communities so named, others elsewhere in Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, and even one Altdorf in the United States. Again, our Altdorf, with the name to distinguish it from other Altdorfs, is Altdorf bei Nürnberg, that is, Altdorf near Nuremberg, a small…

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The Lost Library by Dan Rabinowitz and the “Burial of Souls” by Yehuda Leib Katznelson: Different Expressions of the Same Sentiment

The Lost Library by Dan Rabinowitz and the “Burial of Souls” by Yehuda Leib Katznelson: Different Expressions of the Same Sentiment

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Having just completed Dan Rabinowitz’s superb book, The Lost Library, about the Strashun Library in Vilna, I am reminded of a remarkable, little-known short story written by a man who lived during the creation of the famous Strashun Library. He, like Rabinowitz, laments the loss of a famous Jewish library, though the literary nature of the lament differs. Rabinowitz has written a magnificent, captivating, thoroughly researched, historical lament. Our author has chosen the short story to metaphorically express his grief…

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Legacy Auction, agunot, censorship, and other notable items

Legacy Auction, agunot, censorship, and other notable items

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Legacy Judaica will be holding its latest auction on April 4th. The auction includes a few lots regarding agunot and comprehensive attempts to annul marriages. In the early 20th century, especially in the aftermath of WWI, some tried to find global solutions to the massive agunah problem. To those books offering solutions were those which disputed the validity of those solutions. There is a lot of ten historic books on the controversies and a lot of letters from American rabbis….

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