ימימה לומר את קרובת הי”ח של הקלירי, “ויאהב אומן”, עם ההרחבות הקליריות “אזרח בט חוץ – תמימים כרשו ארץ – אותו מבהלת” ו”אספרה אל חוק – אמל ורבך”, וכן נוהגים עד היום הזה. ובליל פורים אחר קריאת המגילה אמרו באשכנז וברומא (ואולי גם בצרפת? – צריך לבדוק בכי”י) הפיוט הקדם-קלאסי “אשר הניא”, וכן נוהגים עד היום הזה באשכנז (אך לא ברומא). לכן לא היה הרבה מקום פנוי בתפילות פורים לפייטני אשכנז וצרפת לכתוב פיוטים לפורים. בהרבה כי”י מנהג אשכנז (אך…
The Seforim blog is proud to announce the publication of our contributor Mitchell First’s newest book, Esther Unmasked: Solving Eleven Mysteries of the Jewish Holidays and Liturgy (Kodesh Press, 2015), available here (http://www.amazon.com/Esther-Unmasked-Solving-Mysteries-Holidays/dp/0692375422). Table of Contents Introduction by Rabbi Hayyim Angel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….
(This post was originally part of the previous one, but since I know people don’t like reading posts more than twenty pages long, I split it up into two parts.) 1. I know that every year around Christmas time some people read my article on Torah study on Christmas eve. At the end of the article I raise the possibility that the various Nittel practices were actually based on non-Jewish superstitions. My suspicion was proven beyond any doubt in a…
In my post here here I mentioned that R. Kook argued that there is good reason to observe mitzvot even if one does not have a traditional view of the Torah’s authorship. On the one hand, there is nothing surprising in this. After all, would anyone tell a non-Orthodox Jew that it is OK if he eats on Yom Kippur? R. Kook’s originality is therefore not seen in the bottom line, but in the argument he uses. He notes that…
רב קהילת “נצח שלמה”, פ”ת אונ’ בר-אילן בימים אלו נוהרים רבים להסתופף בצל אהלו של הצדיק ר’ אברהם מתתיהו פרידמן, נכדו של הריזי’נער, בנו של הבן הרביעי לחצר המלוכה, ר’ מנחם נחום פרידמן. הסיבה לכך היא יום הולדתו של הצדיק, שנלב”ע חשוך ילדים, שהוא כ”ה כסלו, נר ראשון של חנוכה. תאריך זה חקוק אף בשמו של הצדיק, המכונה אברהם על שם ר’ אברהם המלאך, בנו הדגול של המגיד ממזריץ’, סבו של הריז’ינר, וכן על שם מתתיהו החשמונאי. כאמור, בשל העובדה…
Professor Shaul Magid is the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair of Jewish Studies at Indiana University. This text was originally prepared for a text-study at a Tu Bishvat Seder at Temple Emunah in Lexington, MA on January 27, 2002. Sincere thanks goes out to Gloria Greenfield for her organizing the seder and for co-producing a beautiful Tu Bishvat Haggadah of which this was a part. Special thanks to the editors (and readers) of the Seforim blog for their gracious consideration…
Jeremy Brown is the author of New Heavens and a New Earth; The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought. He writes on science, medicine and the Talmud at Talmudology.com As we approach the end of Masechet Yevamot in the Daf Yomi cycle, it seems appropriate to reflect on a legendary story in the annals of Jewish bibliography. This story involves King Henry VIII, the laws of Yevamot, and the greatest private Jewish library in the world. About thirty years ago, while…
In the Koren Rav siddur, in the minhagim of the Rav, in the section dealing with the halachic rules of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, זצ”ל it is written: The Rav posited that if one forgot to recite Ya’aleh VeYavo on Rosh Hodesh during Shaharit, one should not repeat the Amida, but should rather rely upon the reference to the holiday that will be made in the Musaf prayer. The Gemara in Shabbat (24a) states that one who forgot to recite…
My recent post here was more popular than my typical post. I base this statement on the fact that I received more emails from readers than usual and the post was picked up by a variety of different websites. The part dealing with the censorship of Rashbam was translated into Hebrew here (with one of the commenters calling for a herem to be placed on ArtScroll)[ and see also here. ArtScroll has now issued its response. The following has been…
(Rudolph) Klein Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is the author of the newly published Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew [available here]. His book is available online and in bookstores in Israel and will arrive to bookstores in America in the coming weeks. Rabbi Klein published articles in various journals including Jewish Bible Quarterly, Kovetz Hamaor, and Kovetz Kol HaTorah. He is currently a fellow at the Kollel of Yeshivas Mir in Jerusalem and lives with his wife and children in…
The following Talmudic passage appears in Sanhedrin 19b (we are using mostly Soncino translation): R. Yossi was asked by his disciples: How could David marry two sisters while they were both living? He answered: He married Michal after the death of Meirav. R. Yehoshua ben Korha said: His marriage to Meirav was contracted in error, as it is said, Deliver me my wife Michal whom I betrothed unto me for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. How does this prove…
1. R. Mordechai Rabinovitch has recently published the second volume of his commentary on the Arukh ha-Shulhan, dealing with the laws of Hanukkah. I strongly encourage anyone who prepares for the holiday by studying the halakhot in the Arukh ha-Shulhan to use R. Rabinovitch’s valuable work. Interestingly, R. Rabinovitch vocalizes the work as Arokh ha-Shulhan. This is based on the fact that these words, with this vocalization, appear in Isaiah 21:5. Yet this is incorrect. As R. Eitam Henkin has…
Saul Lieberman (1898–1983) is universally regarded by Talmud scholars as the foremost talmudist of his generation, and some regard him as one of the foremost talmudists of all times. Immanuel Low wrote to him in Hebrew in 1938: “In the depth of your articles there are many sparks of the spirit of the Gaon of Vilna.” E. S. Rosenthal wrote in Hebrew in 1963: “… until we can almost say about him: there was no king like him before him,…