You may recall that in a prior post we noted that in the Reinetz edition of the Pirush Ba’al HaTurim al HaTorah is a victim of censorship. Specifically, Reinetz quotes a story about how quickly the Tur wrote his commentary on the Torah. In the early edition of Reinetz’s work, Shai Agnon is cited as the source while in later editions Agnon is removed. In the comments, however, some took issue with the need to cite to Agnon as Agnon…
In response to Professor Menachem Kellner’s thoughtful post at the Seforim blog regarding Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz’s recent article in the latest issue of Tradition and subsequent response at the Seforim blog, frequent contributor to the Seforim blog, Rabbi Chaim Rapoport of London, presents his latest offering below: שבט לוי” בספר ‘משנה תורה’ להרמב”ם ובזמן הזה” תגובות למאמר החכם פרופסר מנחם קלנר הרב חיים רפופורט לונדון אנגלי’ הקדמה בספר ‘משנה תורה’, בסוף הלכות שמיטה ויובל (פי”ג הי”ב והי”ג) ובסיום ‘ספר זרעים’,…
In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi’s Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, the Jewish Quarterly Review published a special forum with articles by David N. Myers, Moshe Idel, Peter N. Miller, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi and Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, in the latest issue of Jewish Quarterly Review 97.4 (Fall 2007). Jewish Quarterly Review, established in 1889 and currently the oldest English-language journal in the field of Jewish studies, is published by…
To the editors of the Seforim blog: In Professor Menachem Kellner’s spirited and scholarly post (“Who is the Person Whom Rambam Says Can be ‘Consecrated as the Holy of Holies’?”) at the Seforim blog, he argues that my inclusion of Rambam’s hilkhot Shemittah ve-Yovel passage is “based on a demonstrable misunderstanding of the Rambam,” and that this passage, understood properly, is not germane to the issue I am addressing. In this short response, I would like to address the cogency…
Menachem Kellner is Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa. Author of several dozen articles on Jewish philosophy, Kellner has written/edited fourteen books, including, most recently, Maimonides’ Confrontation With Mysticism (London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2006). This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog.Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz’s learned and interesting article in the most recent issue of Tradition (“The Pursuit of Scholarship and Economic Self-Sufficiency: Revisiting Maimonides’ Commentary to Pirkei Avot,” Tradition 40.3 (Fall 2007): 31-41) contained…
In Kovetz al Yad (new series), volume 12, Professor Y. Ta-Shma published, for the first time from manuscript, a small kuntres of R. Yehuda Hachasid, that he titled Zecher Asa Lenifleosav. More recently, this article was reprinted and included in Ta-Shema’s collected writings, Kenesset Mekharim, (vol. 1, chap. 14). Two years ago, R. Yaakov Stal decided to turn this small pamphlet in to a beautifully edited book. He turned the work into a 517 page sefer! Professor Ta-Shma, for the…
holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Scranton. He is a frequent contributor to the Seforim blog and his most recent posts are “Forgery and the Halakhic Process” and “Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 2.” The post below was written as part of “Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 2,” which the baale ha-blog have split up for the convenience of the readers of the Seforim blog. As such, the footnotes…
holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Scranton. He is the author of Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966 (London: Littman Library, 1999), The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised (London: Littman Library, 2003) and Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox (University of Scranton Press, 2006). Prof. Shapiro is a frequent contributor to the Seforim blog and his recent posts…
As previously noted at the Seforim blog, Eruv Online has an excellent series on the history of eruvin controversies. In his most recent offering, he has posted the fifth segment of “History of City Eruvin − The Eruv in St. Louis.” For earlier posts, see 1,2,3,4. On a related topic, see Rabbi Adam Mintz’s earlier post about “The Manhattan Eruv” at the Seforim blog.
As previously mentioned on the Seforim blog by myself and others, our generation is privileged to something no previous generation has seen, a sheer volume of Jewish books being printed and reprinted. Many of these works are seeing print for the first time – works of Rishonim and Achronim on all sorts of topics brought to the public eye from manuscript form. Some of these printings are beautiful editions, critically edited, and even glossed with illuminating marginal annotations. Other times…
Someone in a comment to a recent post mentioned an article that appears in the latest issue of the journal Ets Hayyim. This journal is published by the “students and hassidim of Bobov.” [Supposedly this journal is a break-off of the excellent journal Kerem Shlomo.] The journal is comprised of what most torah journals are today, there is a section publishing manuscripts hiddushei torah, general hiddushei torah, some articles on halacha etc. In this fourth and most recent issue there…
(London, England) As Rabbi Eliezer Brodt has recently noted in a post at the Seforim blog the advent of the sabbatical year has been blessed with a plethora of new books and pamphlets related to the laws of shemitah. Prominent amongst these is a publication entitled Kitvei Ma’adanei Eretz on Masechet Shevi’it, from the writings of the world renowned halachic authority, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910-1995), published by Zehav haAretz on the “eve of the shemitah year, 5768”. The sefer…
“A man enters synagogue on Yom Kippur with his dog and tells the gabbai this is a very smart dog, he can talk. “If he will talk for you,” says the man, “will you let him sit next to me?” The gabbai says “let’s hear him.” Man turns to dog and says what is on top of this building which keeps the rain out? the dog says ruf ruf. The guy says see he said it was a roof. But…
* With all the messianic overtones that the Jewish people are regaled with over Tishrei, one beloved by Chassidim is the Zohar’s view (I, 117a) is that we are privileged to live in an era where similar results occur in both the natural and religious worlds, where “the gates of knowledge above, and the fountains of knowledge below, will be opened”. Academics and scientists are always aware that similar breakthroughs in knowledge occur at approximately the same time in different…
This is a continuation of this prior post, in order to fully understand the following it may pay to reread the older post here. Previously, I had attempted to reconstruct when Finkelstein had published his seforim and thus deduce that Finkelstein copied the Mekore Minahgim. Now, through internal evidence I can further bolster that theory and, perhaps, explain exactly what happened. Additionally, I hope to demonstrate that although Finkelstein copied, he was unaware the work Mekore Minhagim had ever been…