The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses

The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses

The Torah’s Jewish Sense of an Ending: A Yasher Koyach to Moses by James A. Diamond James A. Diamond, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo. He is currently a Fellow of the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project sponsored by the Herzl Institute in collaboration with the John Templeton Foundation. His latest book is Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon, published by Cambridge University Press (http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/maimonides-and-shaping-jewish-canon). This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Every…

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What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom

What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom

What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom By Steven Weiner  Steven had the privilege and good fortune of learning from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ztz”l and Rav Yaakov Meidan Shlit”a at Yeshivat Har Etzion (1982-83) and prior to that from Rav Yisroel Mendel Kaplan ztz”l and other Rabbeim at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia.  He is currently working on a series of essays on the theme of Shivat Tzion and…

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על שיבושי הצנזורה שנמצאים בהדפסות החדשות של התלמוד

על שיבושי הצנזורה שנמצאים בהדפסות החדשות של התלמוד

על שיבושי הצנזורה שנמצאים בהדפסות החדשות של התלמוד הרב ברוך אבערלאנדער אב”ד הבד”צ דקהילות החרדים דבודאפעסט ורב דקהילת חברה ש”ס – ליובאוויטש בהמשך לרשימה שהופיעה ב’ספרים-בלוג‘ אודות הצנזורה הנני מפרסם כאן מתוך מה שרשמתי בענין. הצנזורה בתלמוד מאז ‘דפוס באסיליאה’ לפני קרוב לארבע מאות וחמשים שנה, בשנים של”ח-שמ”א, נדפסה התלמוד הבבלי בעיר בזל שבשוצריה. ש”ס זה ידוע בשם ‘דפוס באסיליאה’ של הנוצרי אמברוסיאו פרוביאנו. מהדורה זו נדפסה על-פי ביקורת הצנזור מארקו מארינו, וזה השחית את תוכן המסכתות במאות מקומות. מסכת…

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Lithuanian Government Announces Construction of a $25,000,000 Convention Center in the Center of Vilna’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Lithuanian Government Announces Construction of a $25,000,000 Convention Center in the Center of Vilna’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery

Lithuanian Government Announces Construction of a $25,000,000 Convention Center in the Center of Vilna’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery by Sid Leiman According to Russian statistics, Vilna had close to 200,000 inhabitants just prior to World War I, roughly forty percent of whom were Jewish, more than thirty percent were Polish, and about twenty percent were Russian and the rest consisted of small Lithuanian, Byelorussian, German and Tartar minorities.[1] In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was convened by the winning parties of…

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ArtScroll and More

ArtScroll and More

ArtScroll and More by Marc B. Shapiro Continued from here. 1. As mentioned, I believe that on occasion ArtScroll is unaware that the text it is explaining is a censored text. Sometimes it might even be an internally censored text (i.e., censored by Jews so as to avoid difficulties with the non-Jewish authorities). This same problem is often found with aharonim. How about with rishonim? For example, was Rashi ever misled by an internally censored text? I would hesitate to say…

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Review of Dovid Bashevkin’s Sefer Berogez Racheim Tizkor

Review of Dovid Bashevkin’s Sefer Berogez Racheim Tizkor

By Rabbi Yitzchok Oratz Rabbi Yitzchok Oratz, a musmach of Beth Medrash Govoha, is the Rabbi and Director of the Monmouth Torah Links community in Marlboro, NJ. אהרן יצחק הלוי ארץ כי הוא ידע יצרנו: הערות והארות, ציונים ומראה מקומות, על עניניבחירה, חטא, ותשובה. מיוסד על ספר “ברגז רחם תזכור” להרב דוד אליקים בשבקין. Introduction In wrath, remember mercy. For He knows our nature . . . God knows the nature of every generation, Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin has written a Sefer uniquely appropriate for the nature…

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