Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process
…that it is a medieval work. Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg raised a similar concern with regard to the Shulhan Arukh. There are certain halakhot which are based on false readings….
Tu Bishvat and The Symmetry Between Aesthetics and Eros
…the etrog should not be cooked before nightfall on the 15th of Shevat. [5] This is likely taken from R. Avraham Avlei of Kalish, Magen Avraham to Shulhan Arukh ‘Orakh…
Was Professor Saul Lieberman “Orthodox” or “Conservative”? [1]
…at JTS should be sh’lomei emunei yisrael and that the students and graduates should beshomrei torah u-mitzvot ka-rauy v’khayaut.” Lieberman did not care about labels but rather about substance, and in this…
The Lost Library by Dan Rabinowitz and the “Burial of Souls” by Yehuda Leib Katznelson: Different Expressions of the Same Sentiment
…special shelves were built from floor to ceiling to line all the available walls. Each book was bound in special hand-crafted leather and labeled with gold leaf. Upon completion of…
What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom
…שיבת ציון, whose members included חגי זכריה ומלאכי as well as other leading scholars of that period), they are not labeled as מנהג נביאים. What significance is to be found…
Review of Reckless Rites
…this has been understood throughout history. Some hold there is no obligation of destroying Amalek today while others are willing to label any perceived enemy of Jews as deserving of…
The Pitfalls of Disagreeing with the Gra
…literature, Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, etc. and collected the relevant statements to create a “talmud” (it is even labeled as such – the legend on the page reads Gemara) on the…
Gelatin, Supposed Retractions, and Abraham Goldstein, Part 1
…11. [7] For example, the Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 201:75, famously forbids heated mikvaot. (R. Karo cites the stringent view as יש מי שאוסר and he does not offer a…
David Assaf – A Farewell to Eitam Henkin
…Halevi Epstein, author of the Arukh Ha-Shulhan, a biography that was accepted for publication by the academic press of Touro College in the United States and which is to appear…
Answers to Quiz Questions and Other Comments, part 1
…(see also Arukh ha-Shalem, s. v. כש, p. 348 n. 4) as תרי is masculine while תרתי is feminine. In R. Meir Mazuz’s new book, Darkhei ha-Iyun, p. 5, he…
The Physician-Ḥaver in Early Modern Italy: A Reunion of Long Forgotten “Friends”
…areas of practical Jewish law, including a large section of Shulhan Arukh, there does not appear to have been a uniform curriculum for the Ḥaver degree.[16] Each location designed its…
Some Recollections of R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, Love Before Marriage, and More
…how we kiss the Torah just like a groom kisses his bride. The other source I found that cites R. Fried’s passage is R. Barukh Moskovits, Tenuvot Barukh (Jerusalem, 1969), vol. 2,…
A Half Slave, Ber Oppenheimer, the Reliability of R’ Shlomo Sofer, and Other Comments
…B’nuschei Hatefilah V’habrachos from the Vilna Gaon, printed in the back of the Shulchan Aruch, where he says that one should say וכל הרשעה and not עושי רשעה, as he references the gemara in Brachos. [38] Yosef Naphtali Stern…
Augsburg and its Printers
…feeds to this writing. Although it was at this time of a smaller scale (because of the not-yet published Bet Yosef and Shulchan Arukh and the later writings on the…
Eliezer Brodt – The Origins of Hamentashen in Jewish Literature
…Judith Cohen Montefiore we find a recipe for “Haman fritters.”[3] R. Barukh ha-Levi Epstein, in his Mekor Barukh, relates the following interesting anecdote which highlights the importance his grandfather placed…