The Seforim Blog – Page 33 – All about Seforim – New and Old, and Jewish Bibliography

In Praise of Ephemera: A Picture Postcard from Vilna Reveals its Secrets More than One Hundred Years after its Original Publication

July 27, 2020 admin Comments 28 comments

In Praise of Ephemera: A Picture Postcard from Vilna Reveals its Secrets More than One Hundred Years after its Original Publication* by Shnayer Leiman I belong to a small group of inveterate collectors of Jewish ephemera. We collect artifacts that many others consider of little or no significance, such as postage stamps; coins and medallions; old posters, broadsides, and newspaper clippings; outdated New Years cards; wine-stained Passover Haggadot; Jewish ornaments, objects (e.g., Chanukkah dreidels) and artwork of a previous generation;…

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The Fundraising Campaign to Print the Letters of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi (1922-2020)

July 22, 2020 admin Comments 15 comments

The Fundraising Campaign to Print the Letters of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi (1922-2020) By Eliezer Brodt Over Shabbos one of the hidden giants of the seforim world, both within ultra-orthodox and academic circles, was niftar; a man known as Rabbi Shmuel Askenazi. He was 98 and lived in Batei Ungarin in Meah Shearim. (seen here with Rav Yechiel Goldhaber) R. Ashkenazi authored many books and hundreds of articles in dozens of journals – both academic and charedi. Besides for authoring so…

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Jewish Treasures From Oxford Libraries

July 14, 2020 admin Comments 14 comments

JEWISH TREASURES FROM OXFORD LIBRARIES By Paul Shaviv Ed. Rebecca Abrams and Cesar Merchan-Hamann / Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 2020 / ISBN 978 1 85124 502 4 / Available in the USA via Amazon $55 307pp, 140 full-colour plates Oxford,[1] the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’, is one of the world’s greatest repositories of Hebraica and Judaica, both books and manuscripts. This sumptuous volume was initiated at the encouragement and support of Martin J. Gross, a New Jersey philanthropist and…

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‘Yikar Sahaduta Dipum Bidatta’ R. Tzvi Hirsch Levin, the Besamim Rosh and the Chida

July 7, 2020 admin Comments 20 comments

‘Yikar Sahaduta Dipum Bidatta’ R. Tzvi Hirsch Levin, the Besamim Rosh and the Chida Rabbi Moshe Maimon, Jackson NJ Some of the worst epidemics we have known in our history have indirectly been the catalyst for important contributions by scholars who produced their valuable works under quarantine. Eliezer Brodt has published in these pages considerable lists of such scholarship, from bygone plagues down to the current terrible epidemic, which highlight the vast scope of this literary bounty. I recently came…

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Post-Mosaic Additions to the Torah?

July 1, 2020 admin Comments 36 comments

Post-Mosaic Additions to the Torah? Marc B. Shapiro In his post here, Ben Zion Katz deals with medieval rabbinic views regarding post-Mosaic additions to the Torah. Katz refers to The Limits of Orthodox Theology, and I have mentioned many additional sources in Seforim Blog posts. (A couple of people have commented that in a few recent publications on this topic it seems that the authors used my writings without any acknowledgment. I would only say that I don’t have a copyright on any…

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Summer 2020 Sale Announcement: Eight New (or newish) book recommendations

June 24, 2020 admin Comments 6 comments

Summer 2020 Sale Announcement: Eight New (or newish) book recommendations By Eliezer Brodt Normally this time of the year I post to announce book week and to list out many of the seforim and books printed during the year. This year, due to Covid-19, there is no book fair. At this time there is “talk” of holding a fair in a few months, but who knows what the future will bring. Some publishing companies are currently running sales via their…

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