A Picture and its One Thousand Words: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Vilna Revisited*

A Picture and its One Thousand Words: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Vilna Revisited*

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A Picture and its One Thousand Words: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Vilna Revisited* by Shnayer Leiman A. The Photograph.             Recently, I had occasion to publish the above photograph – a treasure that offers a glimpse of what the old Jewish cemetery of Vilna looked like in the inter-war period.[1] Indeed, it captures the oldest portion of the rabbinic section of the old Jewish cemetery. The purpose of this essay is to identify the persons buried here and – where possible…

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The Yom Tov Lecture of R. Eliezer Hagadol

The Yom Tov Lecture of R. Eliezer Hagadol

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The Yom Tov Lecture of R. Eliezer Hagadol By Chaim Katz, Montreal Our Rabbis taught in a baraita: R. Eliezer was sitting and lecturing about the laws of the festivals the entire day. A first group left and he said: these people own pithoi (huge storage containers).  A second group left and he said: these people own amphorae (smaller storage containers). A third group left . . .  A forth group left . . .  A fifth group . ….

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Textual Emendations in Minhag Anglia

Textual Emendations in Minhag Anglia

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Textual Emendations in Minhag Anglia Harry Freedman Harry Freedman’s The Talmud: A Biography is published by Bloomsbury Publications. His next book, The Murderous History of Bible Translations will be published by Bloomsbury in 2016 In his book Changing the Immutable Mac Shapiro notes that, for reasons of propriety, the Birnbaum siddur transliterates the words מי רגליים in פטום הקטרת [1], instead of translating them. Philip Birnbaum was not the only translator to be troubled by these words. In 1890 Rev….

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A Note Regarding Dayan Simcha Zelig Rieger’s View of Opening a Refrigerator Door on Shabbat

A Note Regarding Dayan Simcha Zelig Rieger’s View of Opening a Refrigerator Door on Shabbat

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A Note Regarding Dayan Simcha Zelig Rieger’s View of Opening a Refrigerator Door on Shabbat Rabbi Michael J. Broyde Introduction Thank you to Rabbi Yaacov Sasson for his comments on footnote 59 of the article “The Use of Electricity on Shabbat and Yom Tov” found in the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, 21:4-47 (Spring 1991) co-written by Rabbi Jachter and myself.  It is always nice to have people commenting on articles written more than 25 years ago.[1] Before delving…

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Evening Prayer Revisited

Evening Prayer Revisited

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Evening Prayer Revisited Chaim Sunitsky There is a dispute in Tamud Bavli (Brachot 4b) as to whether one should say Shma with Brachot before or after Shmone Esre during the evening prayer. The opinion of R. Yohanan is that Shma is said first while the opinion of R. Yehoshua ben Levi is that Shmone Esre is said before the Shma. Moreover, while R. Yohanan holds that Shma is followed by Shmone Esre immediately, according to R. Yehoshua ben Levi Shmone…

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Shadal on Exodus by Daniel A. Klein (Kodesh Press) – New Book Announcement

Shadal on Exodus by Daniel A. Klein (Kodesh Press) – New Book Announcement

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Order on Amazon or on the Kodesh Press website. Very rarely in the history of parshanut has one author written both a translation of the entire Torah text and a complete Torah commentary in Hebrew.  Most likely, no one has accomplished this feat since Shadal (Samuel David Luzzatto, 1800-1865).  Now, the second volume of his Pentateuco is available in a new, all-English version—Shadal on Exodus:  Samuel David Luzzatto’s Interpretation of the Book of Shemot, translated and edited by Daniel A. Klein (New York: Kodesh Press, 2015).  This edition is a double…

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