Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More

Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More

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A tremendous resource that will be of great interest to Seforim Blog’s readers has been made available to the public. The entire archive of the great Rav Yitzchak Eizik Halevi Herzog, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, has been scanned and is now available online. The archive contains hundreds of files on a wide range of topics, including Rav Herzog’s Piskei Halacha and Torah novellae, extensive correspondence on Israeli politics, Rav Herzog’s efforts to save Jews of Europe, and much more….

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Tracing the History of Shavuos Night Learning

Tracing the History of Shavuos Night Learning

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This article will trace some of the earliest sources for the Minhag observed by many to stay up learning Torah throughout the entire night of Shavuos. At the outset I would like to note that the focus of this article will be not be about the exact seder that was learned i.e. Tikun Lel Shavuos. Different versions of this article originally appeared in the Kulmos Supplement of Mishpacha in 2014 and then in English in 2015. I returned to all…

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Augsburg and its Printers

Augsburg and its Printers

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Chaim Meiselman catalogs rare books for the Joseph Meyerhoff Collection, originally at Baltimore Hebrew Institute, now at Towson University. He is a bibliophile and intermittently a book dealer. This is his first contribution to the Seforim Blog. Last summer, I was at Yale University for a conference. Those who have spent time at Yale University will know that their libraries are separated by major subject, and therefore are situated in different buildings. While I was spending a good amount of…

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New Book Announcement: Some New Works by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel

New Book Announcement: Some New Works by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel

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עמודים בתולדות הספר העברי, הדר המחבר, 521 עמודים וישמע קולי, 385 עמודים I am very happy to announce the recent publication of an important work, which will be of great interest to readers of the Seforim blog. The forth volume of, Amudim be-Toldot ha-Sefer ha-Ivri by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, of Bar-Ilan University’s Talmud department. As I have written in the past, Professor Spiegel is one of the most prolific writers in the Jewish academic scene, authoring of over 160…

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The Not-So-Humble Artichoke in Ancient Jewish Sources

The Not-So-Humble Artichoke in Ancient Jewish Sources

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Susan Weingarten is an archaeologist and food historian living in Jerusalem. This is an adapted extract from her paper ‘The Rabbi and the Emperors: Artichokes and Cucumbers as Symbols of Status in Talmudic Literature,’ in When West met East: the Encounter of Greece and Rome with the Jews, Egyptians and Others: Studies presented to Ranon Katzoff on his 75th Birthday. Edited by D. Schaps, U. Yiftach and D. Dueck. (Trieste, 2016). There has been a lot of discussion of artichokes…

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The Humble Artichoke

The Humble Artichoke

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The New York Times recently discussed a novel ruling of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. The Rabbanut held that artichokes fall into the category of prohibited foods. This is not because they are listed as such in the Torah. Rather the expansion of the biblical category is because of a secondary concern, the presence of insects. Those insects may reside in the heart which without opening the tight leaves that comprise the vegetable one is unable to determine if insects are…

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China and the Answer to the Last Quiz

China and the Answer to the Last Quiz

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I recently returned from China and one of my friends asked me if during my time there I found anything of relevance to the Seforim Blog. He did not mean the comment seriously, but in fact I did find something. Whenever I am in synagogues I make a point of examining their collection of books, as you never know what you might come across. In Beijing I was at the fabulous Chabad House and I found something that will be…

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Some Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2018

Some Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2018

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For over thirty years, starting on IsruChag 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. They also reprint some of their older, out of print titles. This year they have printed some valuable works, as they did last year. See here, here and here for a review of previous year’s titles….

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The 1526 Prague Haggadah and its Illustrations

The 1526 Prague Haggadah and its Illustrations

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This piece was originally printed in Ami Magazine’s Kunteres 9 Nisan 5777 – April 5, 2017 The topic perhaps most written about in Jewish literature is the Haggadah shel Pesach. There are many kinds in many languages and with all kinds of pirushim and pictures. Whatever style one can think of, not one but many Haggados have been written—be it on derush, kabbalah, halachah, mussar or chassidus. There are people who specialize in collecting Haggados, even though they don’t regularly…

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Passover with Apostates: A Concert in Spain and a Seder in the Middle of the Ocean by Elie Wiesel (1957)

Passover with Apostates: A Concert in Spain and a Seder in the Middle of the Ocean by Elie Wiesel (1957)

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Forverts (22 April 1957) [Yiddish] [Translated into English by Shaul Seidler-Feller (2018)] If someone says to you that Passover is the festival of redemption not only of a nation but of each individual, believe him; If someone explains to you that a Jew remains a Jew deep at heart, despite the masks he is often forced to wear, do not doubt him; If someone tells you that, no matter what a Jew does, he will remain a living legacy of…

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Jews, Baseball, and The Yiddish Press

Jews, Baseball, and The Yiddish Press

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Dr. Eddy Portnoy is Senior Researcher and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. He is the author of the recently-published (and much acclaimed, and fun) book, Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press (Stanford, 2017), available here. This is his second contribution to the Seforim Blog. His previous essay, “The Yiddish Press as a Historical Source for the Overlooked and Forgotten in the Jewish Community,” was published here. Jews love baseball!…

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כעומד לפני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies

כעומד לפני השכינה בשעת ער לערנט: Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein on the Divide Between Traditional and Academic Jewish Studies

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posheter yid and an oved Hashem; the rest is commentary. This is his third contribution to the Seforim blog; for his previous articles, see here and here. This post has been generously sponsored le-illui nishmat Sima Belah bat Aryeh Leib, z”l. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein enthusiasts might be surprised to learn that there was a time when the rosh yeshivah, zts”l, lectured publicly in Yiddish. I myself had no idea that this was the case until my dear friend, Reb Menachem…

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Birchas Ha-ilanos in Nissan

Birchas Ha-ilanos in Nissan

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The Following article originally appeared in Yeshurn 32 (2015) [Eventually it will be updated]. For another part of this series see here. הלכות ברכת הראייה במסגרת הספר ‘מעגל טוב’ לחיד”א (ג)1 ברכת האילנות אליעזר יהודה בראדט ברכה האילנות בניסן2 ביומנו ‘מעגל טוב’ כתב החיד”א ביום א’ בניסן תקל”ז: “וברכתי ברכת אילנות”3. בשנת תקל”ח כתב בכ”ט בניסן: “ואחר מנחה ברכתי ברכת אילנות בגן”4. ביומנו גם רשם בשנת תקמ”ח: “ברכתי ברכת אילנות שילהי ניסן בפיזא”5. וכן בשנת תקמ”ט: “ברכת האילנות סוף ניסן”6….

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Rare Letters, Controversial & Valuable Hasidic Books – Genazym Auction

Rare Letters, Controversial & Valuable Hasidic Books – Genazym Auction

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Genazym Auction is holding an auction on March 21st that includes many important letters and manuscripts and a small number of books (download a pdf of the catalog here). Many of the books are Hasidic or owned by well-known Hasidic figures. For example, the rare first edition of the No’am Elimelekh, 1788, by R. Elimelekh of Lyzhensk (lot 13). That book, like other early Hasidic books are both fundamental to the Hasidic philosophy and theology and were controversial among those…

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New Sefer Announcement: The Collected Writings of R’ Moshe Reines

New Sefer Announcement: The Collected Writings of R’ Moshe Reines

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It is with great pleasure that I announce a sefer that I just printed, The Collected Writings of R’ Moshe Reines. ר’ משה ריינס מבחר כתבים, אוסף חיבוריו מאמרים ואגרותיו, לג+ 640 +4 עמודים The sefer will be available for purchase in the US shortly. (We will post that info soon). A PDF of some sample pages are available upon request, for more information contact me at eliezerbrodt@gmail.com. What follows is the English introduction to the book. This is an…

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