How Many Seforim, and why too much is not a good thing

How Many Seforim, and why too much is not a good thing

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On the Main Line asks how many seforim are actually out there. Although, it is probably impossible to give an exact count there are ways to give a fairly good estimate. In Y. Vinograd’s Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book, he lists by year the amount of seforim that were published. Vinograd’s work, however, only covers from the beginning of printing until 1863. According to that count I came up with approxiamatly 32,503 seforim published. The CD Rom, The Bibliography of…

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Tisha B’av and History of the Temples

Tisha B’av and History of the Temples

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There is a new book out, Elefh Dor, by Yeruchum Horowitz (2 vol.). This book gathers from hazal and various secular history works to give a complete picture from the Second Temple until the closing of the Mishna. The author does an especially good job of collating and arranging the various sources in a coherent manner. As it is tisha b’av I will focus on the parts of the book dealing with the destruction of the Temple. As anyone that…

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Pashkevilin (Broadsides)

Pashkevilin (Broadsides)

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Pashekevilin, or broadsides, are commonplace all over Israel, but perhaps they are most associated with Meah She’arim area of Jerusalem. There is a permenant exhibit on some of these at JTS. There is now a book devoted to these. The book, Pashkevilin: Modo’t Kir u’kruzot Pulmus b’rehovot haharedi (“Broadsides: Wall Announcements and Polemical Proclomations in the Ha’redi Street”) contains three articles and 150+ pages with pictures of these broadsides. The first article is by Menachem Friedman (a recent topic on…

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