שמועות נדירות בעניני ספרים וסופרים מפי מו“ר הג“ר שמרי‘ שולמאן שליט“א מח“ס באר שרים, אור לישרים, מריש בבירה, שומר הפתח, שומר מצוה ועוד זה לי עשר שנים שזכיתי ליצוק מים על ידי אחד המיוחד מזקני הגאונים בדורינו משיירי כנה”ג דור אחרון של גאוני רבני ליטא הגאון מוהר”ר שמריהו שולמאן שליט”א. מלבד גדלותו בתורה המשתקפת מכל דף ודף מעשרות ספריו, ונוסף על זה שכבר מנעוריו נודע הגאון כבעל זכרון מופלא שאינו מאבד טיפה, עוד הוא ממלא תפקיד חשוב כממשיך שרשרת לגדולי…
Parshat Ki Tisa. The Anointing Oil Revisited. By Chaim Sunitsky In this parsha we have the instructions of how to make anointing oil: וְאַתָּה קַח לְךָ בְּשָׂמִים רֹאשׁ מָר דְּרוֹר חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת וְקִנְּמָן בֶּשֶׂם מַחֲצִיתוֹ חֲמִשִּׁים וּמָאתָיִם וּקְנֵה בֹשֶׂם חֲמִשִּׁים וּמָאתָיִם וְקִדָּה חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְשֶׁמֶן זַיִת הִין All the proportions of the ingredients are clearly explained except the second. Moshe had to take 500 (shekalim[1]) of Mar Dror. Kinamon (probably cinnamon) “its half, 250”, K’ne – 250 and…
Assorted Matters Marc B. Shapiro My next post will take some time to prepare, but there are some other matters that I want to bring to readers’ attention, in particular a few books that I recently received. Due to space considerations, I couldn’t include these in my last post. 1. For those interested in the history of Lithuanian yeshivot, the last few years have been very fruitful. In 2014 Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky’s Ke-Tzur Halamish appeared. This book is a study of the yeshivot…
The Valmadonna Broadside Collection: Review essay By Eliezer Brodt and Dan Rabinowitz The Writing on the Wall: A catalogue of Judaica Broadsides from the Valmadonna Trust Library, edited by Sharon Liberman Mintz, Shaul Seidler-Feller and David Wachtel, London-New York: 2015, 320 pp. Jews have been collecting books or manuscripts for centuries. A related category that is collected by fewer is ephemera, including broadsides, documents and letters of historical significance. Of late, a few annual auctions have included some of these…
Keser vs. Kesher: What’s In A Name?[1] By Rabbi Akiva Males I – The Puzzle Kesher Israel (KI) Congregation has enhanced Jewish life in Pennsylvania’s capital of Harrisburg for almost 115 years. During that time, KI has been blessed with outstanding rabbinic leadership: The famed Rabbi Eliezer Silver[2] first headed the congregation from 1911-1925. He was followed by Rabbi Chaim Ben Zion Notelovitz who served KI from 1925-1932. Rabbi David L. Silver (a son of Rabbi Eliezer Silver) led the congregation…
An Unknown Picture Marc B. Shapiro In the post that went up earlier today, I mention that in the future I plan to share an unknown picture of R. Moshe Feinstein and R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. My intention was to include this picture in a future post, but that could be awhile, so here it is. It was taken at the wedding of R. Moshe Dovid Tendler’s daughter, Rivka, to R. Shabtai Rappaport. The man on the left is…