Three New Books
…the most prolific of the classical poets in the Land of Israel, whose poems reached Europe, and some of them are recited in Ashkenazic and Italian synagogues through today. The…
Stet in the Beit Yosef: Fish and Milk, from Typographical Error to Typological Exemplar
…R. David abi ibn Zimra, R. Bezalel Ashkenazi, and R. Isaac Luria – had ample access to the developments in Cairene medicine that inspired the Tadhkirat passage. His relationship with…
Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3
…I remember that the side that supported gashem was able to show that it was not only grammarians who supported this reading, but R. David Lida (c. 1650-1696) Ashkenazi rav…
The Agunah Problem, Part 1; Incarceration and Free Speech
…Zvi Hirsch Ashkenazi, Hakham Zvi, no. 133. It deals with a man who committed adultery with a married woman, and his wife therefore wishes to divorce him. In such a case, contemporary…
Collection of Articles on Sabbatianism Online
…by Elisheva Carlebach, “The Sabbatian Posture of German Jewry,” Jacob J. Schacter, “Motivations for Radical Anti-Sabbatiansim: The Case of Hakham Zevi Ashkenazi,” as well as an excellent article in Hebrew…
Gelatin, Abraham Goldstein, R. Moses Isserles, and More, Part 2
…problem for Ashkenazic Jews? Based on the principle that if kitniyot are less than half of the total the food may be eaten, many people see no reason why such…
Daniel J. Lasker – “December 6 Is Coming: Get Out the Umbrellas”
…readers of the Seforim blog know, the dates for asking for rain (adding the words ve-ten tal u-matar li-verakha to the ninth blessing of the Shemoneh Esreh, in the Ashkenazi…
ועשו להם ציצת – What to Make of Tzitzit
…in fact a feature of the passage’s poetry and wordplay (not dissimilar, for example, to the line צבאות צאנך יצלצלו בקול in Hakalir’s אדירי איומה, recited by Ashkenazim during shacharit…
וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם אֱהָבוּ; On Changing the Immutable by Marc B. Shapiro
…in order to preserve peace.”[1] Here, Shapiro portrays the רמ”א, the primary codifier of halacha for Ashkenazic Jewry, to have ruled that for the sake of preserving the peace, it is…
Satmar From As Seen By An Insider: A Review of the New English Biography of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe
…another nine Ashkenazim with you, and you can start your own minyan in Kiryas Yoel.” I wonder who this “Yekke” was., and how long he would have lasted among the…
Concerning Athei Merahiq, Nasog Ahor, and the Ravia Mugrash, and More
Concerning Athei Merahiq, Nasog Ahor, and the Ravia Mugrash, and More by Rabbi Avi Grossman (The author would like to express his gratitude to those who supported the recent publication…
Poetry and Wordplay in the Book of Kohelet
…Ashkenazi (Tedeschi) in Ho’il Moshe also provides a grammatical reading of the sentence in which chelko refers to the giver. Reading yitnenu as attaching to the receiver’s object referred to…
Eliyahu Bachur in Isny
…the first of his books to be published in the new printing-house. (The name of the book alludes to his name, Eliyahu). The book, printed in typical Ashkenazi Hebrew typography,…
Review of Shaul Stampfer, Families, Rabbis & Education
…that this is an Ashkenazic-centered perspective, because it is unimaginable that a Sephardic scholar would ever come into consideration by most of those who like to speak of the gadol…
Towards Decoding Ha-Yeriah Ha-Gedolah (The Great Parchment), A Cryptic 14th Century Italian Kabbalistic Text
…in Rome was enriched by the arrival of a variety of Jewish esoteric material: theosophical and ecstatic Kabbalah, as well as Ashkenazi esoteric material.”[3] Idel raises the possibility that “a…