Book Sale: Bar Ilan University Press Eliezer Brodt The following list is a special sale of books from Bar Ilan University Press. The offer is for the next 3 days [until 12.27.18] for the readers of the Seforim Blog. The prices are as listed below, but do not include shipping costs. For more information contact me at EliezerBrodt@gmail.com Payment is with Pay Pal, but other arrangements can be made. Shipping is not included in the price; that depends on the…
The Seforim Blog is now in its bar-mitzvah year and over the past thirteen years has grown exponentially. There are currently over 2,000 email subscribers and an estimated 16,000+ hits a month from all over the world and nearly 7 million hits over the lifetime of the site. The site has published nearly 950 articles from over 100 different authors. Articles from the site have been cited in traditional Torah works, academic journals and books and have even formed the…
Kabbala, Halakha and Kugel: The Case of the Two Handed Blessing* In parshat Vayehi, Yaakov simultaneously blesses his two grandchildren, Ephraim and Menashe by placing one hand upon each of their heads. Today, there is a widespread custom of blessing one own’s children on Friday night (although some only do it on the eve of Yom Kippur). This custom most likely originated with the Hasedi Ashkenaz in the 14th century but quickly spread to the rest of Europe, including France,…
PIYYUT ON THE SURVIVAL OF THE JEWS OF BRECLAV (LUNDENBURG)[1] ON JANUARY 23, 1698 By David Roth[2] I found a printed pamphlet in the National Library of Israel[3] entitled סליחות מה שאומרים כאן ק”ק לונדענבורג בי”א טבת בכל שנה והמאורע יבואר בתוך הסליחות …, translated as “the selihoth prayers that are recited here [in] the community of Lundenberg (Břeclav), on the 11th of Teveth every year, and the event [commemorated] will be told in the selihoth”. The pamphlet was published…
Chaim Zelig Slonimsky and the Diskin family by Zerachya Licht Two years ago, the Seforim Blog published an article, written by Zecharya Licht, about the maskil, Chaim Zelig Slonimsky, and the Chanuka controversy he’d ignited. Last year, the Seforim Blog published published Part I of another article, also written by Zecharya Licht, which again focused on the above-mentioned maskil. This second article highlighted Slonimsky’s relationship with the Diskin Family. Part II of the article, which had already been published, zeroed in on Slonimsky’s relationship with R’ Binyomin Diskin of…
Conservative Conversions, Some Grammatical Points, and a Newly Published Section of a Letter from R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik Marc B. Shapiro 1. Since I mentioned R. Ovadiah Hoffman in the last post, I would be remiss in not noting that he and his brother, R. Yissachar Dov, recently published volume 4 of Ha-Mashbir, devoted to R. Ovadiah Yosef. It can be purchased here. The volume contains a previously unpublished letter by R. Ovadiah Yosef that I provided, dealing with a rabbi who improperly converted…