The Seforim Blog – Page 93 – All about Seforim – New and Old, and Jewish Bibliography

The Yeshivah and the Academy: How We Can Learn from One Another in Biblical Scholarship

July 14, 2014 admin Comments 0 Comment

Hayyim Angel’s latest book, Peshat Isn’t so Simple, has just been published. The Seforim Blog is happy to present this excerpt. The Yeshivah and the Academy: How We Can Learn from One Another in Biblical Scholarship I The study of Tanakh is an awesome undertaking, given its infinite depth. This chapter will explore the approaches of the yeshivah and the academy to Tanakh study. We will define the yeshivah broadly to include any traditional religious Jewish setting, be it the…

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Book Excerpt: Turning Judaism Outward by Chaim Miller

July 8, 2014 admin Comments 0 Comment

Chaim Miller’s Turning Judaism Outward, a comprehensive biography of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, has recently appeared. The Seforim Blog is happy to present this excerpt from pages 98-103 Some truly fascinating insights into Menachem Mendel’s inner life have surfaced recently in his correspondence with Rayatz, first published in 2010.73 The Sixth and future Seventh Rebbes were in very close contact during this period; between 1929 until 1932 alone, Rayatz penned some seventy-two letters to his son-in-law and daughter. In contrast to…

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What is Bothering the Aruch Hashulchan? Women Wearing Tefillin

July 7, 2014 admin Comments 1 comment

What is Bothering the Aruch Hashulchan? Women Wearing Tefillin Michael J. Broyde mbroyde@emory.edu Please note that this piece isn’t meant to be construed one way or another as the view of the Seforim Blog. Introduction In our previous article,[1] we focused on the view of the Mishnah Berurah concerning women wearing tefillin. In this article, we focus on the Aruch Hashulchan, whose approach is also complex, reflecting the complexity of the area. The Aruch Hashulchan (OC 38:6) states: נשים ועבדים…

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A Response to Yaakov Rosenes

July 2, 2014 admin Comments 1 comment

A Response to Yaakov Rosenes by Menachem Lazar Menachem Lazar is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, studying applied mathematics and materials science. He has previously served as editor of Beit Yitzchak, an annual Talmud publication of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. In a recent essay at the Seforim blog, Yaakov Rosenes provides a fascinating window into some unfortunate trends in the world of Jewish publishing. In particular, Rosenes highlights how technology has impacted not only how seforim…

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Demythologising the Rabbinic Aggadah: Menahem Meiri

June 30, 2014 admin Comments 2 comments

The Seforim Blog thanks Ivor Jacobs for sending us this unpublished article by his father. Demythologising the Rabbinic Aggadah: Menahem Meiri by Louis Jacobs Many of the mediaeval Jewish teachers, partly in defence of the Talmud against attack by the Karaites, partly because of their own rationalistic stance, engaged in what Marc Saperstein in a fine study [1] has called ‘decoding the Rabbis’. That is to say, passages, especially in the Talmudic Aggadah, which seemed to them offensive to reason…

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When was the Afar of the Para Adumah lost?

June 25, 2014 admin Comments 0 Comment

When was the Afar of the Para Adumah lost? By Eliezer Brodt A few years ago (2009) for Parshas Chukas I posted a chapter from my sefer Ben Kesseh Le’assur about when was the Afer of the Para Adumah lost. In 2010 I reprinted the chapter with many important additions in my work Likutei Eliezer. Here is the updated chapter as it appears in my Likutei Eliezer. Eventually I will update it even more. For recent footage of a Para…

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