The Seforim Blog – Page 53 – All about Seforim – New and Old, and Jewish Bibliography

The First Artichoke Controversy of 2012

May 30, 2018 admin Comments 14 comments

The First Artichoke Controversy of 2012 By Leor Jacobi Recently a kashrut controversy surrounding traditional Italian fried artichokes has received major media coverage in the New York Times and the Seforim Blog (twice, in chronological order, not order of importance). In order to prove the antiquity of Jewish artichoke consumption, depictions of artichokes in medieval illuminated haggadot have been adduced. These were the topic of a lesser-known artichoke controversy in 2012 here in the comments section of the Seforim Blog, which can be as nasty…

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Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts

May 28, 2018 admin Comments 4 comments

Approbations and Restrictions: Printing the Talmud in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam and Two Frankfurts by Marvin J. Heller Approbations designed to protect the investment of printers and their sponsors when publishing a large work such as the Talmud were well intentioned. Unfortunately, the results were counter-productive, resulting in acrimonious disputes between publishers within and between cities. This article discusses the first approbations, issued for the Frankfurt on the Oder Talmud (1697-99), and the resulting dispute with printers in Amsterdam in 1714-17. The…

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Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More

May 23, 2018 admin Comments 0 Comment

Gems from Rav Herzog’s Archive (Part 1 of 2): Giyus, Professor Lieberman and More By Yaacov Sasson A tremendous resource that will be of great interest to Seforim Blog’s readers has been made available to the public. The entire archive of the great Rav Yitzchak Eizik Halevi Herzog, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, has been scanned and is now available online.[1] The archive contains hundreds of files on a wide range of topics, including Rav Herzog’s Piskei Halacha and Torah novellae, extensive correspondence…

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Tracing the History of Shavuos Night Learning

May 17, 2018 admin Comments 0 Comment

Tracing the History of Shavuos Night Learning By Eliezer Brodt This article will trace some of the earliest sources for the Minhag observed by many to stay up learning Torah throughout the entire night of Shavuos.[1] At the outset I would like to note that the focus of this article will be not be about the exact seder that was learned i.e. Tikun Lel Shavuos.[2] Different versions of this article originally appeared in the Kulmos Supplement of Mishpacha in 2014 and then in English in…

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Augsburg and its Printers

May 16, 2018 admin Comments 2 comments

Augsburg and its Printers: Printer of the Tur in Ashkenaz: Fragments Censored at the Beinecke’s Augsburg Mahzor By Chaim Meiselman Chaim Meiselman catalogs rare books for the Joseph Meyerhoff Collection, originally at Baltimore Hebrew Institute, now at Towson University. He is a bibliophile and intermittently a book dealer. This is his first contribution to the Seforim Blog. Last summer, I was at Yale University for a conference. Those who have spent time at Yale University will know that their libraries…

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New Book Announcement: Some New Works by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel

May 13, 2018 admin Comments 0 Comment

New Book Announcement: Some New Works by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel By Eliezer Brodt עמודים בתולדות הספר העברי, הדר המחבר, 521 עמודים וישמע קולי, 385 עמודים I am very happy to announce the recent publication of an important work, which will be of great interest to readers of the Seforim blog. The forth volume of, Amudim be-Toldot ha-Sefer ha-Ivri by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, of Bar-Ilan University’s Talmud department. As I have written in the past, Professor Spiegel is one of the most prolific…

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