Pets on Shabbat, Rabbi Morenu, and Epidemics
…he tells us that one of the leading members of the Ashkenazic community of Amsterdam named his dog after R. Emden’s father, as a way of showing how he despised…
Abraham’s Chaldean Origins and the Chaldee Language
…speak the language of his nation (Est. 1:22), marking the utter end of the language of Babylon. Interestingly, R. Moshe Ashkenazi Halpern (c. 1555)[29] writes in his work Zikhron Moshe…
Foie Gras “Fake News”: A Fictitious Rashi and a Strangely Translated Ethical Will
…a delicacy today rightly associated with the French who are indeed by far the largest producers and consumers of it, was for much of history an Ashkenazi Jewish expertise. This…
Assorted Comments
…in almost all early sources from the Sephardic world, as well as in many from the Ashkenazic world. However, at Ashkenazic weddings (and I believe at all Sephardic weddings as…
Hayyim ben Benjamin Ze’ev Bochner: Kabbalist, Talmudist, and Grammarian
…[6] Ch. B. 3Friedberg, Bet Eked Sepharim, (Israel, n.d.), mem 2174 [Hebrew]. [7] Chaim Tchernowitz, Toledoth ha-Poskim, II (New York, 1946), pp. 260-61 [Hebrew]. [8] Shmuel Ashkenazi, “Tyrnau, Issac” vol….
Some Unusually “Liberal” Statements by Mainstream Rabbinic Figures
…to speak so inappropriately about outstanding sages such as R. Ovadiah Yosef, R. Meir Mazuz, R. Shlomo Amar, R. Aharon Leib Steinman, and R. Shmuel Auerbach. Unfortunately, this approach has…
Eliezer and Joseph ben Naphtali Hertz Treves: Hebrew Publishers, briefly, in the Mid-Sixteenth Century
…rise in messianic and Kabbalah currents in Ashkenazic Jewry. As Michael A. Meyer writes, “Dikduk Tefillah (The Precise Interpretation of Prayer, 1560), reflects a rise in such tendencies.”[13] These tendencies…
Mysteries of the Magical Fifth Passover Cup (II): The Great Disappearing Act
…homoteleuton (skipping text from one similar word to another)[1], 2) Endorsement of this variant by Rashi and Rashbam, 3) Application of this variant by subsequent Ashkenazi scribes,[2] 4) Circulation of…
R’ Orenstein, Author of the Yesuos Yaakov: The Controversy Over Publication of his Works
…noted Pnei Yehoshua on Shas), as well as R’ Shmuel HaLevi author of Turei Zahav on Shulchan Aruch [1](son-in-law of R’ Yoel Sirkes[2] the author of Bayis Chodosh on Tur)[3]….
Censorship: The Autobiography of R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz, ADeReT
…disputes like the Emden-Eybeschutz controversy and thus Aderet wasn’t required to vindicate himself. Moreover, Aderet ultimately came out on top, becoming Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazim in Jerusalem. Thus, he…
Parshanut in English: Rabbinic Bible Commentary in Translation
…(1871) pdf Shmuel ibn Tibbon [1150-1230] Ecclesiastes Robinson (2007) Radak [David ben Joseph Kimhi, ca. 1160-ca. 1235] A. Genesis Munk (2006) 4 vols. Sefaria.org alhatorah.org B. Isaiah Turner [Isa 11;…
Concerning the Zohar and Other Matters
…an explanation that became very influential and served as a justification for the widespread ignoring of the study of Tanakh in the Ashkenazic world[4] בלולה במקרא ובמשנה וכו’: פירש רבינו…
Torah Under Wraps
…of academia and would not dream of lending credence to its guiding assumptions. Nearly every remarkable personality in the field originates in the circles of Ashkenazi religious zealots, yet the…
Who can discern his errors? Misdates, Errors, Deceptions, and other Variations in and about Hebrew Books, Intentional and Otherwise: Revisited
…one and without Berlin’s Kasa de-Harshana, is the much quoted responsum concerning “legumes, rice, and millet which some Ashkenazic rabbis prohibit and is the practice in some communities. . .”…
The Origins of Hamentashen in Jewish Literature (Revisited)
…widespread and common from at least the 16th century. In fact, R. Shmuel Ashkenazi pointed to some sources which may demonstrate that hamentashen were eaten even earlier. Ben Yehuda in…