Annual Shavua HaSefer sale on computerized (digital) Seforim Libraries. 1) Otzar HaChochma This year the sale will be 30% off the regular price. The sale will be from June 7 thru June 27. The prices are as follows: Full version (30,300 vol.) reg. 1920 sale $1299 Bnei Torah version (29,000 vol.) reg 1720 sale $1175 Library version (30,300 vol.) reg 1120 sale $820 There are also TWO additional optional sections that can be added to any of the above versions:…
We are delighted that the occasion of our son’s wedding (Uri Sprecher to Rivi Zand, 4 Kislev 5769) solved a 150-year-old bibliographic mystery. When we chose to provide our guests with the opportunity to engage in limmud Torah during the course of the wedding by reprinting and distributing “Tshuvah Be’Inyan Kriat HaKetubah,” we assumed that, just as the title page and the publisher’s introduction indicated, it represented an actual Halakhic Responsum issued in 1835 by the Chief Rabbi of Bialystok,…
Wine, Women and Song: Some Remarks on Poetry and Grammar – Part II By: Yitzhak of בין דין לדין [In addition to reiterating my thanks to Andy and Wolf2191 for their assistance and encouragement, I wish to thank Eliezer Brodt for a number of valuable suggestions, several of which have been incorporated into this part of the essay.]Great Men and Grammar In the first part of this essay, we discussed Ibn Ezra’s slashing attack on the alleged grammatical lapses of…
In previous posts at the Seforim blog, Elliott Horowitz of Bar Ilan University, co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, and author of Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), has described Modern Amalekites [here], Isaiah Berlin on Meir Berlin (Bar-Ilan) and Saul Lieberman [here], Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud [here], and Bugs Bunny [here]. This is his fifth contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Late in the first…
Wine, Women and Song: Some Remarks On Poetry and Grammar – Part I by Yitzhak of בין דין לדין [This is the first of three parts; I am greatly indebted to Andy and Wolf2191 for their valuable comments, many of which I have incorporated into this paper, and for obtaining for me various works to which I did not have access.] Rhyme and Grammar This is the opening stanza of one of Rav Yehudah Halevi’s (henceforth: Rihal) best known poems:יום…
As we have discussed on numerous occasions, Hebrew books contain a fair amount of non-Jewish iconography and imagery that is of non-Jewish origin. See, for example, here, here, here and here. Of course, Marvin Heller’s article on Mars and Minerva appearing on Hebrew title pages, Marvin Heller, “Mars and Minerva on the Hebrew Title-Page,” in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 98:3, Sept. 2004, reprinted in Heller’s collected articles Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (which…
See here for the previous lists. Halkhot Gedolot, Berlin-Hildesheimer ed., Otzreinu, Toronto, 2009, 2 vol., 22, 162, ; 652 pp.: This is a reprint of the important Geonic work based upon a different manuscript than the other printed editions. Additionally, it includes a new brief introduction and additions to the Seder Rav Amram Goan also published by Otzeinu. Kol Brisk, Jerusalem, 2009, 797 pp. This is a controversial work that explores the Brisk school and attempts to locate the current…
[1] אגב, שם צויין כי הזכויות שייכות למכון עוז והדר, אבל אין פרט זה מענייננו. [2] אין מן הצורך לומר שאת הפתרון של ראשי תיבות אלו לא ימצא המעיין בשום ספר המפענח ראשי תיבות. [3] עתה ראיתי כי גם בספר ברכת החמה לר”צ כהן, בני ברק, תשס”ט, עמ’ שיז, מובאים דברים אלו בשם “ר’ שמעיה, תלמיד רש”י, בפירושו שעל ‘יוצר לפרשת החודש’ בעריכת הרה”ג אהרן אייזנבאך שליט”א, מירושלים”. אין לדעת אם הכוונה לספר שנדפס או שעתיד להדפס. לא הצלחתי להשיג…
& Ish Sefer There are many works and articles on this topic and, as such, this is merely a preliminary attempt to deal with this burgeoning area of Jewish literature. [See also here]. For a great bibliographic note on the development of Seder Birkat ha-Chamah, including publications relating to birkat ha-chamah, see R. J. D. Bleich, Birkat ha-Chamah, pp.128-133. JNUL has put up a many of the editions of relating to subject here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,…
Rabbi Elli Fischer is a freelance translator living in Modiin, Israel. He maintains the “On the Contrary:Judasim with Comments Enabled ” blog. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. Given the thousands of haggadot that have been published over the years, and the dozens of new ones published each year, it is not easy for any single haggadah to separate itself from the others on the market. As a result, some new haggadot provide unique commentary, others contain…
Additionally, the first edition of two important siddurim are here as well. The Siddur Sha’ar ha-Shamayim from R. Isaiah Horowitz, the Shelah (lot no. 174) and R. Y. Emden’s Siddur, (lot no. 101). Another important first edition of a liturgical work is R. Meir Ibn Gabbai’s Tola’ath Ya’akov (lot no. 187) with the rare poem page. Another work that contains a rare page is the Hon Ashir from R. Immanuel Ricci. (Lot no. 195) This work, a commentary on the…