Asufah of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi

Asufah of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi

Comments 0 Comment

אסופה, ארבעה מאמרים מאוצרות הר”ש אשכנזי שליט”א [‘העלם דבר וטעות סופר’, ‘הגונב מן הספר’, ‘הרמב”ם כמתרגם מלשון התלמוד ללשון המשנה’, ‘מילונות עברית כיצד’?], ערך והשלים והביא לבית הדפוס, יעקב ישראל סטל, בהשתתפות אליעזר יהודה בראדט, כריכה רכה, 166 עמודים. It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of another volume of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi’s work- Asufah. As I have written in the past, we are trying to print the collected material Rabbi Ashkenazi has written over a seventy…

Read More Read More

Tobacco and the Hasidim and a Comment on Artscroll

Tobacco and the Hasidim and a Comment on Artscroll

Comments 2 comments

has just appeared. The Seforim Blog is happy to present the following excerpts from the book. (The Note on Artscroll is part of a longer article.) Tobacco and the Hasidim and a Comment on Artscroll Louis Jacobs References in literature to the use of tobacco by hasidic Jews are numerous . Although there is little direct evidence to indicate how widespread it was, the references suggest it was fairly extensive. Let us examine some of these. In his autobiography Solomon…

Read More Read More

Ha-Osek be-Mitzvah Patur min ha-Mitzvah: The Case of Prayer and Torah Study

Ha-Osek be-Mitzvah Patur min ha-Mitzvah: The Case of Prayer and Torah Study

Comments 0 Comment

has just published a new book, On the Relationship of Mitzvot Between Man and His Neighbor and Man and His Maker. The Seforim Blog is happy to present chapter 4 from the book. Ha-Osek be-Mitzvah Patur min ha-Mitzvah: The Case of Prayer and Torah Study Daniel Sperber We find in Sefer ha-Rokeah, section 369 ad fin., that a person who is sitting in the synagogue, wrapped in his talit and with his tefillin on his head and is reciting liturgical…

Read More Read More

Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution

Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution

Comments 0 Comment

This volume offers a brief, accessible presentation of the life, teachings, and legacy of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, a colossal figure little known in the English-speaking world. It also tries to fill the crying scholarly need for a one-volume study in English to go alongside the vast and growing body of literature on him in Hebrew. It is addressed to readers new to the man, the period, and his teachings, as well as to those already familiar with them. This…

Read More Read More

פורים בגבעת שאול – דיוקה של שמועה

פורים בגבעת שאול – דיוקה של שמועה

Comments 0 Comment

silhof@neto.bezeqint.net ירושלים היא כיום העיר היחידה הידועה בבירור כמוקפת חומה מימות יהושע בן נון שקריאת המגילה נעשית בה ביום ט”ו לחודש אדר. עם היציאה מן החומות ובניית השכונות החדשות סביב העיר הישנה, התעוררה השאלה עד להיכן מתפשטת ירושלים – אם להחשיבה כחלק בלתי נפרד ממנה אם מדין “סמוך ונראה”. דיון זה עדיין לא נפשט בשכונותיה הרחוקות יותר של ירושלים – כשבחוד חנית הויכוח עומדת לה שכונת רמות הנעשית בכל שנה ושנה אגודות אגודות. קונטרסים וספרים ללא מספר נדפסו בענין. באחד…

Read More Read More

The Ethics of the Case of Amalek: An Alternative Reading of the Biblical Data and the Jewish Tradition

The Ethics of the Case of Amalek: An Alternative Reading of the Biblical Data and the Jewish Tradition

Comments 0 Comment

This study of Amalek deals with seven questions. 1. Is the battle against Amalek primarily ethnic or ethical? 2. What is the difference in reading the biblical data starting with Exodus and Deuteronomy or starting with I Samuel 15? 3. What is the evidence that the Bible already seeks ethical justification for punishing Amalek? 4. How does post-biblical literature in general and rabbinic literature in particular further the transformation of Amalek into an ethical category? 5. How is the “Sennacherib…

Read More Read More

Mishloach Manot of Rabbis and Scholars

Mishloach Manot of Rabbis and Scholars

Comments 0 Comment

the Seforim Blog is happy to present the following. Mishloach Manot of Rabbis and Scholars By Tovia Preschel Rabbis, scholars and writers used to send on Purim—in addition to the traditional Mishloah Manot—spiritual food to their dear ones: a song, a study, even an entire book, they had written. In this article only a few of such “manot” (“portions”, “gifts”) can be mentioned. Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, the author of Lekha Dodi—wrote a commentary on the Book of Esther and sent…

Read More Read More

The Vilna Gaon, part 3 (Review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius) by Marc B. Shapiro

The Vilna Gaon, part 3 (Review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius) by Marc B. Shapiro

Comments 3 comments

In honor of Sean Penn and Mark Wahlberg, who understand what pidyon shevuyim is all about. Continued from here.Returning to R. Sternbuch’s Ta’am ve-Da’at, vol. 1, earlier in this book, p. 88, we find the following passage. שמעתי ממרן הגריז”ס זצ”ל (הגאב”ד דבריסק) שאברהם אבינו לא היה עצבני וחושש ומפחד שהולך לשחוט בנו יחידו, אלא היה לו הלילה שלפני העקדה ככל הלילות, ולא נתרגש מצווי זה וקם בבוקר לקיים המצוה כשם שמקיימים כל מצוה, והשכים כזריזין שמקדימים למצוות, ושש ושמח…

Read More Read More

Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger and Warder Cresson

Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger and Warder Cresson

Comments 10 comments

Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger (1798 –1871) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the great leaders of Orthodox Judaism. He was born at Karlsruhe and died in Altona. He studied under Rabbi Abraham Bing in Würzburg, where he also attended the university. Because of his well-known greatness as a Torah scholar, questions were sent to him from across the globe. The following question relates to a story that occurred in Jerusalem. According to Jewish Law, there is a list…

Read More Read More

Some Notes on Censorship of Hebrew Books

Some Notes on Censorship of Hebrew Books

Comments 0 Comment

Habent sua fata libelli (Books have their fate) One of the tragedies of the Inquisition and the Expulsions – both from Spain and Portugal– which has received very little attention is the destruction and loss of Hebrew manuscripts and books. Since the printing of Hebrew books in Spain began many years before the Expulsion, this loss involved printed books as well as manuscripts. Indeed, due to these losses, since only fragments survive of some of the earliest examples of Hebrew…

Read More Read More

A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study

A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study

Comments 0 Comment

The following is an excerpt from an article with the above title by Joseph Ringel. The full article, including the footnotes detailing the source materials, and the appendix, have been published in the Fall 2013 issue of Tradition (46:3), and is available for purchase at http://www.traditiononline.org/. In recent years, scholars have taken a renewed interest in elucidating the specific methods used to study Jewish texts in yeshivas, both past and present. For example, Daniel Boyarin elucidated the classical late medieval/early…

Read More Read More

The Jewish Reaction to the Livorno Earthquake of January 27, 1742

The Jewish Reaction to the Livorno Earthquake of January 27, 1742

Comments 0 Comment

On January 27, 1742 (כב’ שבט תק”ב) an earthquake shook Livorno, Italy to its core. All through the preceding months rumbling shuddered throughout the city. Pasqual R. Pedini, a recognized cleric at the time, elucidated in a letter beginning with the incipient rumblings of Jan. 16 carrying on until 27th a vivid depiction of the earthquake’s manifestation and impact (The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, London 1809; VIII p. 568, “An Account of the Earthquakes Felt in…

Read More Read More

New book Announcement- Megale Temirin: Special sale

New book Announcement- Megale Temirin: Special sale

Comments 0 Comment

יוסף פרל, מגלה טמירין, ההדיר על פי דפוס ראשון וכתבי-יד והוסיף מבוא וביאורים יונתן מאיר, מוסד ביאליק. ג’ חלקים. כרכים ‘מגלת טמירין’ כולל 345 עמודים +מח עמודים; כרך ‘נספחים’ עמ’ 349-620; כרך ‘חסידות מדומה’ עיונים בכתביו הסאטיריים של יוסף פרל, 316 עמודים. Megale Temirin (Revealer of Secrets) ed. Jonatan Meir. Three volumes, Mosad Bialik, Jerusalem This is a short description of the work: Megale Temirin, was first published in Vienna in 1819, and is considered one of the sharpest and…

Read More Read More

TU BISHVAT: TREE AND THOU

TU BISHVAT: TREE AND THOU

Comments 0 Comment

Rabbi Alan Zelenetz, M.Phil. has been professionally involved in Jewish education, academia, and independent scholarship for more than twenty-five years, including leadership positions as principal of Torah and General Studies of Yeshivah of Flatbush Middle Division and Director of Curriculum Development of Teachers College Innovations, Columbia University. DYNAMIC GREEN From their cosmic vantage point in outer space, NASA satellites orbiting our planet beam down real-time streaming video of Earth’s surface. They reveal that 75% of our world is “a relatively…

Read More Read More