שלמה זאב פיק מחבר ספר “אהבת שלמה” הנשר הגדול לקראת יום פטירתו של הרמב”ם בכ’ טבת, רציתי לברר מניין הביטוי “הנשר הגדול” ביחס לרמב”ם, מתי התחילו להשתמש בו, ואם כינוי זה מצוי רק ברמב”ם בלבד. אחרי שחקרתי את הנושא וכתבתי רשומות ידידי הרב ד”ר רועי ז’ק הפנה את תשומת לבי למאמרו של ד”ר מיכאל ריגלר, “‘הנשר הגדול’ – גלגולו של כינוי כבוד”, המעין, תמוז תשס”ו [מו, ד], עמ’ 68-73, שכבר עמד על הרבה מן המקורות שהובאו להלן. הנשר הגדול –…
This Tuesday Dan Rabinowitz will appear on a panel, “Saving Jewish Cultural Legacy: Libraries and Archives During and After WII,” at Brandeis University. This Thursday he will be discussing his book at the Library of Congress, at the African and Middle East Reading Room at noon. Seforim Blog readers are invited to attend. Additionally, readers of the blog can receive a 20% discount on Dan’s book, The Lost Library: The Legacy of Vilna’s Strashun Library in the Aftermath of the…
A Short Note Regarding an Illustrated Title Page and A Possible Unicum There are a series of books, Seder ha-haʻarakhah ve-haHanhagah, that record the tax law and taxes paid by the Mantuan community and were published in Mantua. [1] The taxes were calculated by communally elected assessment formulators. The taxes were used to support the entire communal infrastructure, including the administration of communal organizations and funds for the poor. As today, each person would provide an accounting of their…
For a collection of posts on Purim see here. These deal with topics as diverse as Jewish humor and parodies, a series on the the origins of hamantaschen (and here and here), banging at the mention of Haman’s name, piyutim for Purim, mishcholot manot, identifying the personalities of Megliat Ester in secular sources, how to approach the story of Ester with children by the late Elliot Horowitz, as well as a couple posts regarding his book on Jewish violence and…
Book Announcement: The Lost Library by Dan Rabinowitz By Eliezer Brodt Its with great pleasure that I announce the recent publication of an important work, that I am certain will be of great interest to readers of the Seforim Blog – The Lost Library by Dan Rabinowitz, founder and editor-in-chief of the Seforim Blog. This book is devoted to the legacy of the personal and expanded public library of Rabbi Mattityahu Strashun. From the back cover: The Strashun Library was…
When Rav Kook Was the Kana’i (Zealot) and His Opponent the Melits Yosher (Advocate)[1] By Bezalel Naor In 1891, there appeared in Warsaw an anonymous work[2] entitled Hevesh Pe’er,[3] whose sole objective was to clarify for the masses the proper place on the head to don the tefillah shel rosh or head-phylactery. According to halakhah, the tefillah must be placed no lower than the hairline and no higher than the soft spot on a baby’s head (i.e. the anterior fontanelle).[4] In…