Some Assorted Comments and a Selection from my Memoir, part 2
…crucial. He spoke at the beit midrash dedication, as did the Boston Rosh Kollel. There were also some minor conflicts related to the beit midrash. Although it was the Orthodox…
The Custom of Refraining from Meat on Rosh HaShana
…Rosh HaShana. This statement appears to be contrary to an (actual) Mishna in Chulin. R. Brodt hopes to have this book available for next year Rosh HaShana. אי-אכילת בשר בראש-השנה…
‘And How Can One Behold a Sefer Torah in Distress?’ On the Relationship between Rabbi Chaim Heller and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
…before settling in the United States.” More than a decade later, his name was even floated by Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung as a potential successor as Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS…
R. Yudel Rosenberg, R. Mordechai Elefant, and Sexual
…times of danger. 3. Readers of the Seforim Blog might recall that on a few occasions I cited passages from the memoir of the late R. Mordechai Elefant, Rosh Yeshiva…
China and the Answer to the Last Quiz
…is, can he make the blessing on besamim? The Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim 297:5, rules that such a person can make the blessing on behalf of one who does not…
The Satmar Rebbe and a Censored Mishnah Berurah, and R. Baruch Rabinovich of Munkács
…hatred. Again I ask, if such a video surfaced from a leftist camp, there would be no hesitation in labeling it anti-Semitic. So why are people hesitant to conclude that…
The 1908 Student Strike at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary: A Newly Discovered Document
…came upon a box of papers labeled, “Rabbi B. Shapiro Papers, 1920s-1960’s.” Rabbi Boruch Shapiro (1883-1970) was born in Szmorgon, Lithuania and was recognized as a Talmudic genius (Iluy) at…
Emek ha-Netziv : The Manuscript
…reverse side of comments labeled as hashmatot; therefore, they may well represent hashmatot to a core commentary, now lost, on the end of Deuteronomy.[28] When one considers the fact that, unlike the first two…
When Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Father Translated the Torah
…a series of articles in Jewish Forum composed in 1928 by Rabbi Samuel Gerstenfeld, a rosh yeshiva at RIETS (a young Rabbi Gerstenfeld is pictured below), attacking the original 1917…
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…
Lithuanian Government Announces Construction of a $25,000,000 Convention Center in the Center of Vilna’s Oldest Jewish Cemetery
…and one of the most important in all of Europe. Ms. Kukliansky labels those who disagree with her as “simply uninformed” or having a particular axe to grind. She does…
Can Orthodoxy Decide Its Own History?
…years – a יובל (which the Torah labels ” לעולם [forever]”) – to have enough of a cumulative effect to erase one world and bring a new society in its…
Regarding Haftarah on Simchat Torah and the daily obligation to recite 100 blessings
…taken out as it mentions regarding Hanukkah that falls on Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh, and regarding Rosh Chodesh Adar that falls on Shabbat. Aside from being an argument from silence,…
Gettting Kabbalah Customs Wrong, Removing Teffilin on Hol HaMoad
…for those kaddashim or because of these other reasons, namely the mussaf can one ignore that requirement on Rosh Hodesh. The Mogen Avrohom says that Rosh Hodesh is different than…
Some More Assorted Comments, part 1
…The preface also records that R. Joseph Kahaneman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh, liked to talk Torah with her. He even said “that he enjoys speaking with her in Torah matters…