Megilat Rut: The night of Boaz and Rut Revisited
…Yevamot 40a. [9] Ad loc. [10] Similarly later when Ashkenazi Jews encouraged halitzah, a financial incentive was used for this too, see Rema, Even Haezer 163:2. [11] Maybe this is…
The Princess and I: Academic Kabbalists/Kabbalist Academics
…ed. Lawrence Fine (New York: NYU Press, 1995); Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism, eds. Karl Erich Grozinger and Joseph Dan (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1995); Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations,…
Elliott Horowitz responds to David Kaufmann on Bugs Bunny
…of that in the Bible between wily Jacob and Esau the hunter, visually back to the hares pursued by hounds in sixteenth-century Ashkenazi illustrated Hagadot, such as those of Prague…
Pesach, Haggadah, Art & Sundry Matters: A Recap of Important Seforimblog Articles
…discussed here, and demonstrated that it preserves the Ashkenazi practice of only requiring supervision from the time of milling and not when the wheat was cut. The illustration accompanying the…
New Sefer Announcement – פירוש התורה לרבינו אברהם בן הרמב”ם, ספר שמות
…now being made available in the form of critical editions of the works of R. Saadia and R. Shmuel b. Chofni Gaon. The result has been the identification of many…
A Short Note Regarding an Illustrated Title Page and A Possible Unicum
…and Other Hebrew Book Rarities,” Judaica Librarianship 18 (2014), 130-53. [7] See Shmuel Weiner, Daat Kedoshim: Pesak Herem: Mazkeret Rabanei Italiah (Petroberg: Berman Press, 1897), 38**; Aviad Cohen, “Diuknot Hakhamim:…
A nay bintl briv: Personal Reminiscences of Rabbi Israel Meir ha-Kohen from the Yiddish Republic of Letters
…Yehuda Even Shmuel (Kaufman; 1886–1976).[6] The following year (1939), he received yoreh yoreh and yadin yadin semikhot from Rabbis Meir Stolewitz (1870–1949), Isser Zalman Meltzer (1870–1953), Reuven Katz (1880–1963), and…
An Unpublished 1966 Memorandum from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Answers Questions on Jewish Theology
…joined the group of students assembled by Rabbi Simcha Wasserman under the guidance of Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky to establish a yeshiva in Los Angeles,[3] and three years later in 1956…
Further Comments by Marc Shapiro
…a responsum to “Abraham Joshua Heschel.” Shmuel Glick, Kuntres ha-Teshuvot he-Hadash, vol. 3, s.v. Sha’ar Yaakov, assumes that this is the famous A. J. Heschel, but I don’t think we…
Of Clowns, Giants, Mules, and Centaurs: The Enigmatic Anah
…those born from a {female} horse. Says Rabbi Yehuda says Shmuel: These are the words of Rabbi Yehuda who says that the seed of the father is not taken into…
Review of Mada Toratekha: Studying Gemara in Broad-based Depth
…about Hannah, the prophet Shmuel’s mother, whose prayer (see 1 Sam. Chapter 2) serves as an archetype for Jewish prayer generally. These statements are analyzed and recorded under a series…
R. Hayyim Hirschensohn, Can One Kill an Am Ha’aretz on Shabbat? Physical Punishments and Lots More
R. Hayyim Hirschensohn, Can One Kill an Am Ha’aretz on Shabbat? Physical Punishments and Lots More by Marc B. Shapiro 1. In many earlier posts I have discussed R. Hayyim…
Chaim Zelig Slonimsky and the Diskin family
…patriarch of the illustrious and rabbinical Diskin family. In this article, Licht reproduced hitherto unknown letter written by R’ Yehoshua Leib’s son, Binyomin Diskin to the maskil, Shmuel Yosef Finn. In that…
The Recently Published Photographs of Rav Yisrael Salanter: Real or Imaginary?
…lists the names of R. Yisrael’s (and his wife Esther’s) six children (four sons and two daughters): Malkah Hindah, Shmuel, Aryeh Leib, Hodah Libah, Yitzchak, and Yom Tov Lipman. [11]…
Response to Criticism, Part 3
…R. Shmuel David, “Teshuvot Ba’al Peh shel ha-Rav Aharon Lichtenstein,” Tzohar 40 (2016), p. 32: ?שאלה: רווקה מבוגרת, כבת 41, מבקשת היתר לקבל תרומת זרע מגוי כדי לזכות להיות אם,…