Review of Reckless Rites
…this has been understood throughout history. Some hold there is no obligation of destroying Amalek today while others are willing to label any perceived enemy of Jews as deserving of…
Manasseh of Ilya and Y. Barzilay
…regard to the Halakhah and its historical development.” (p. 24). Therefore, Barzilay wants to then claim and project back on Manasseh’s early years and label him as a radical even…
When Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Father Translated the Torah
…JPS translation. Gerstenfeld labeled the JPS translation Conservative and sought to demonstrate its departure from Orthodoxy by comprehensively cataloging all the places where the translation departed from the halakhic understanding…
“Improved” Making of a Godol
R. Nathan Kamenetsky has republished the first volume of his book, “Making of a Godol.” This new edition is labeled “Improved Edition.” The reasons for the improvements are well-known. The…
What Did the Willows Ever Do to Deserve Such a Beating? An Original Explanation for a Perplexing Custom
…שיבת ציון, whose members included חגי זכריה ומלאכי as well as other leading scholars of that period), they are not labeled as מנהג נביאים. What significance is to be found…
Notes on the Book of Samuel, and the Eternal Sanctity of the Temple in Maimonidean Thought
Notes on the Book of Samuel, and the Eternal Sanctity of the Temple in Maimonidean Thought By Rabbi Avi Grossman avrahambenyehuda.wordpress.com Rabbi Label Dulitz, who passed away last week, was…
The Physicians of the Rome Plague of 1656, Yaakov Zahalon and Hananiah Modigliano
…multi-section work entitled Ohalei Yaakov Otzar HaHokhmot. Zahalon’s medical work is labelled as section two, Hokhmat HaRefuah, the only section in the Vatican manuscript. Below is the section describing the…
Jewish Treasures From Oxford Libraries
…window labelled ‘Jewish Heritage’ in the middle of the homepage of Oxford Chabad www.oxfordchabad.org opens up a surprisingly academic and scholarly range of material on Jewish Oxford. Both recommended! [2]…
The Greatest Story in the Annals of Jewish Book Collecting
…Jews to England under Cromwell. Lunzer noted that one of the books on display, from the collection of Westminster Abbey, was improperly labeled, and was in fact a volume of a Bomberg Talmud….
R. David Nieto’s Matteh Dan, Life on Other Planets and Jewish Reactions to Copernicus
…Ashkenazi pp. 322-27; see also S. Leiman, “Dwarfs on the Shoulders of Giants,” Tradition 27:3, pp. 90-94 in both of these articles, the Kuzari Hashenei is not included. Just to…
The Hanukkah Miracle
…the Hanukkah miracle, I find it impossible to believe that R. Isaac (or any other medieval Ashkenazic sage) did not accept the traditional story of the miraculous burning of the…
Purim and Parodies
…disagreed for example R. Shmuel Aboab in his Sefer Zichronos [2] writes very strongly against these actions. Another Italian rabbi, R. Shmuel Me-Sha’ar Areyeh, who was a contemporary of the…
A Desperate Plea for Help on Behalf of Vilna’s Old Jewish Cemetery
…rooftops of the mausoleums of R. Noah Petletzis[16] and R. Shmuel Landau.[17] Just last night, they placed the carcasses of 5 horses next to the mausoleums. All our communal Jewish…
A Tale of Two Zionist Siddurim in Exile
…the time, who sarcastically called it a cheder mesukan in the Ashkenazic pronunciation (i.e. “a dangerous cheder”).[4] The ḥeder metukan also raised the ire of assimilationists, who wanted Jews to…
Special Italian Haftarah for the “Shabbat Kallah”
…a groom on the Shabbat following the wedding.[2] Ashkenazi communities began the haftarah with 61:10 and read until 63:9,[3] which is also the 7th of the haftarot of consolation, which…