Open Orthodoxy and Its Main Critic, part 1
…one finds in the Ashkenazic world. In the Ashkenazic world, detached explanations of the sort offered by R. Hadaya and Mizrachi would be too offensive to even consider. [1] Brian…
The Haftarah of Parashat Shemot
…Mahzor Vitry, in Sefer Etz Haim, in the Sefer HaEshkol’s glosses on the Nagid’s list (where it begins at 27:5, one verse earlier), and in all Ashkenazic humashim and sifrei…
The Customs Associated with Joy on Chanukah and Their More Obscure Sources
…dairy products, sefuganiot, playing cards and dreidel. 1. Seudah R. Eliezer Ashkenazi (1512-85) writes in the introduction to his classic work on Megliat Esther, Yosef Lekakh (first printed in Cremona,…
Avunculate Marriage in the Bible
…Rabbeinu Tam—in agreement with his grandfather Rashi—understands that the Talmud only endorses marrying one’s sororal niece, but actually forbids marrying one’s fraternal niece. Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi (1520–1592) testifies that this…
The Head Movements of Shema’
…of the Hebrew letters. In the Ashkenazic community, the differentiation between dalet degushah (hard dalet, indicated by the dot or dagesh mark) and dalet rafah (soft dalet, lacking the dagesh…
Waiting Six Hours for Dairy- A Rabbanite Response to Qaraism
…action was performed in between. Some Ashkenazi rishonim required only kinuach ve’hadach; others required birkas hamazon. Rashi [23] (as cited by Siddur Rashi and Manhig) and Rashbam [24] required birkas…
Bibliography of English Translations of Medieval and Modern Rabbinic Bible Commentaries
…1993 J. Ecclesiastes 1. Shahar BS1475.3. A413 1992 K. Daniel 1. Shahar/Oratz/Hirshfeld (Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1994) XXIII. Eliezer ben Elijah Ashkenazi [1512-1585] A. Esther 1. Brown (PhD, BHU, 2006) XXIV. Keli…
On the Times Commonly Presented for Birkat HaL’vana, Part 3
…at least visible in Israel, but once again, it was not visible in Northeast Europe, in places where the Ashkenazic aharonim had lived (Fig. 5). The true molad, the lunar…
Charles H. Manekin — Moritz Steinschneider’s Indecent Burial
…lands. After characterizing Ashkenazic Jewish life as one of “segregation in government, trade and society; expulsion, inquisition, agitation, and persecution” and Ashkenazic Jews as possessing “a surplus of mental acumen,…
New Book: The Living Tree: Studies in Modern Orthodoxy by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
…courts – for example, Sephardic and Ashkenazic – in one city, since he explains the prohibition of making divisions “lest it appear that we are acting in accordance with two…
‘Yikar Sahaduta Dipum Bidatta’ R. Tzvi Hirsch Levin, the Besamim Rosh and the Chida
…from the same term used in Ashkenazic circles to denote memoir literature. For the Chida’s own use of the term in describing his journals see the list in the bibliographical…
Augsburg and its Printers
…Here is a picture of the vantage from the inside. Among their collection of hebrew books is a copy of the very rare imprint of the Machzor ke-seder ha-Ashkenazim, the…
Between Authority and Inquiry: Beyond the Masthead of the Beys Yaakov Journal, 1923-1980 – Part 1
…author is therefore institutionally consequential. Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel at the head of a state-established rabbinate whose claim to centralized…
A Conversation with Professor Benjamin Brown on the Publication of ‘Hasidic Leadership in Israel: Past and Present, Spirit and Matter’
…also connected the encompassing circle of Ashkenazi custom; the circle of Hasidic custom in the narrow sense (various practices related to the performance of mitzvot); the circle of Hasidic custom…
R. Nathan Nata ben Reuben David Tebele Spira and his Works: Among them Ma’amar Yayin ha-Meshummar, on the Prohibition against Drinking Stam Yeinam (gentile wine), and Contemporary Books on that Subject
…an authority than R. Moses Isserles (Rema, c. 1530-1572) the halakhic decisor for Ashkenazim, was apparently lenient on the prohibition of stam yeinam. He expressed a somewhat lenient view in…