Shnayer Leiman: Did a Disciple of the Maharal Create a Golem?
…was misled by the source he quotes, namely R. Menahem Mendel Krengil (d. 1930) in his commentary to R. Hayyim Yosef David Azulai’s Shem Ha-Gedolim.[10] In turn, Krengil was misled…
The Ethics of the Case of Amalek: An Alternative Reading of the Biblical Data and the Jewish Tradition
…Hayyim 685:7. [52]296; see Finkelstein edition, p. 314, l. 8, with n. 8. [53]Guide for the Perplexed 3:41 (ed. Pines, p. 566). [54]See Zohar 3:281b. The approach gained currency in…
Hillel Noach Magid Steinschneider’s Ir Vilna
…Hayyim would add ימ”ש (may his name be erased). But, at the end, the publishers explain they decided that even though there was “פסולת” (lit. chaff) the good content outweighed…
Wrestling with the Ketsot – Review of ‘New Heavens: The Ketsot ha-Hoshen and the Rise of Lamdanut’, by Noam Samet
…the top of its agenda and admitted no other pursuit. This was the approach of the Vilna Gaon, as described by his disciple R. Hayyim of Volozhin: the Gaon worked…
Uncensored Books (Dr. Marc B. Shapiro)
…was published by Yeshivat Or Etzion in Israel, whose Rosh Yeshivah is R. Hayyim Druckman. It is obvious that the editors have no knowledge of American Jewish history, otherwise, the…
Rabbinic Insults and Bibliographical Errors
…was forced by the Rabbis to print this apology, just like R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzato.” Roest, op cit. Thus, according to Roest, the apology was not brought about from Hanau’s…
The Ancillary Benefits of Non-Jews on the Hebrew Book
…Morteira (1596-1660). As Dr. S. Z. Leiman has noted (see Ali Sefer 10 [June 1982]: 153-55; reprinted in Givat Shaul, ed. Hayyim Eliezer Reich [Brooklyn, NY: [n.p.], 1991]) there is…
Eli Meir Cohen: A Question of Mesorah?
…the famous Yaakov Ben Hayyim 1525 edition of Mikraot Gedolot published in Venice that printed a seemingly inconsistent pattern in the pronunciation of the different occurrences of this word. In…
Benjamin Richler: “Putting the Pieces Together: The ‘discovery’ of Gershon b. Meir Heilprin (Heilbronn)”
…Heilprin (Heilbronn) Benjamin Richler The manuscripts in the collection of the great bibliophile Heiman (Hayyim) Joseph Michael (1792-1846) were purchased in 1848 by the Bodleian Library in Oxford University. One…
The Alleged Blindness of R. Jacob Joshua Falk During the Emden-Eibeschuetz Controversy
…What follows is a summary list of some key sources, and their dates. 1. Wednesday, August 7, 1754 (=19 Av, 5514). The חיד”א (R. Hayyim Yosef David Azulai, 1724-1806) met…
Mysteries of the Magical Fifth Passover Cup (II): The Great Disappearing Act
…found in Orhot Hayyim, Hilkhot Tum’ah, vol 2, p. 602, and apparently in our case regarding the stringency of not drinking water. In this case, the development of a stringent…
Ghosts, Demons, Golems and their Halachik Status
…the local or time period. R. Hayyim Yosef David Azulai (Hida) discusses “groups of women who go out to the forest” and conduct rituals with music and it seems they…
New Books from Biegeleisen
…Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, Jerusalem, 2008, 2 vols., 403, 397 pp. The responsa of the eclectic R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger on Orah Hayyim and Yoreh Deah with notes and an introduction….
The RCA “Edition” (Or Lack Thereof) Siddur
…addition here one avoids mentioning God’s name later on. But the R. Mordecai Jaffe (1530-1612), in his Levush (Orach Hayyim no. 488), argues and says that just as in Shacarit…
Publication of New Book, Kana’uteh de-Pinhas, by Seforim Blog Contributor, R. Bezalel Naor
…the worldview contained therein, which as he pointed out, ran counter to both the teachings of Ramhal (acronym of Rabbi Moses Hayyim Luzzatto) and Habad (acronym of Hokhmah, Binah, Da’at,…