Hakirah, Metzitzah, and More
…the topic, since R. Rapoport did not go far enough in his criticism. To remind readers, Hakirah no. 12 had a discussion on homosexuality with R. Shmuel Kamenetsky. This was followed by…
Some New Seforim, Books, R’ Eleazar Fleckeles, R’ Naftali Herz Weisel, Frankism and (of course) Censorship, Pt. I
…that it was a forgery, as the work has a haskamah from both R’ Shmuel Landau and R’ Eleazar Fleckeles and was printed in their lifetime in their city and there…
Altering of Rabbinic Texts?, Shlomo Rechnitz and the Eighth Principle of Faith, R. Yair Hayyim Bacharach, the Ridbaz and “Chemistry,” and R. Yitzhak Barda
…unlike Rechnitz, he knows that Yemenite Torah scrolls are not identical to Ashkenazic and Sephardic Torah scrolls). Reinman writes as follows in One People, Two Worlds, p. 119: [A]n examination of…
Az Yashir, Another Kabalah Custom Gone Wrong?
…Ashkenazi Siddurim all end at ה’ ימלוך. For example, the earliest printed siddur in Prague, 1513 does that. As does the סידור of R. Shabbti Sofer, first published in the…
Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1
Rabbi Joseph Hertz, Women and Mitzvot, Antoninus, the New RCA Siddur, and Rabbis who Apostatized, Part 1 Marc B. Shapiro 1. In my last post here, in discussing R. Joseph…
Tarnopol: A short-lived early 19th century Hebrew press
…Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00234.html. The following description of Tarnopol is based on this Pinkas. [5] “Tarnopol,” The Encyclopedia of Jewish life Before and During the Holocaust, editor in chief, Shmuel…
Rashi BaMidbar 22:9- “Taut Sofrim” or “Agadot Chalukot?”
…עִמָּךְ, לְהַטְעוֹתוֹ. [3]Artscroll Sapirstein Rashi, Brooklyn, NY, 2018, p.275. [4] Yeshayahu Maori, Shaanan, Kiryat Shmuel-Haifa, 2020 [5] Ibid pages 137-139. [6] Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi did not use the approach…
New work by Rabbi Stahl
…שיר השירים איוב ורות ספר קושית לאחד מהראשונים Copies of אלפא ביתא תניתא דשמואל זעירא ב’ חלקים by R. Shmuel Ashkenazi and edited by Rabbi Stahl are also still available…
The Mother Haggados: Models for Modern Analysis of Printed Jewish Illustrations
…origin: Sephardic or Ashkenazic countries. The former includes the creation cycle and the Exodus story prior to the Haggadah text, while the latter incorporates the imagery into the text. Within…
Leket Yosher – A Closer Appraisal in Light of a Recent Controversy
…is mentioned in R. M. Ashkenazi, Hilkhot Talmud Torah, however, even so it is not well-known by any definition.] Since we are on the topic of the Leket Yosher it…
“Rabbi David Hoffmann, ZL” by Eliezer M. Lipschuetz – A Translation
…Jewish community as single entity which should not easily be split. In 1875 [sic], Rabbi Hoffmann composed a dissertation, A Biography of Mar Shmuel,[6] and received a doctorate from the…
A Picture and its One Thousand Words: The Old Jewish Cemetery of Vilna Revisited*
…cemetery, also (in Yiddish) as der alter feld or der alter beys eylam [so in Lithuanian Yiddish; in Ashkenazic Yiddish: beys oylom]. It was in use from the year it…
Book Week: 2025
…Littman Library Yosef Levine, Hakham Tzvi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate Marc Shapiro, Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New, The Unique Vision of Rav Kook הרצוג…
More About Rashbam on Genesis Chapter 1 and Further Comments about ArtScroll
…contains the earliest example we have of Rashi’s commentary on the Torah. It is also the first illuminated Ashkenazic manuscript (with the illumination by a non-Jewish artist).[20] The copyist of…
“Be-Esek Atevata”: A Contextual Interpretation of an Elusive Phrase in Akdamut Millin
“Be-Esek Atevata”: A Contextual Interpretation of an Elusive Phrase in Akdamut Millin by David S. Zinberg A centerpiece of the Ashkenazic liturgy for Shavuot, Akdamut Millin is an artistically sophisticated, epically dramatic, and emotionally…