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Sefer: Mishneh Torah

R. Hayyim Soloveitchik’s Attitude Towards Girsaot: A Response to Dr. Marc Shapiro

R. Hayyim Soloveitchik’s Attitude Towards Girsaot: A Response to Dr. Marc Shapiro

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R. Hayyim Soloveitchik earned his towering stature in Jewish intellectual history for his revolutionary methodology of Talmudic analysis, but scholars have also noted another aspect of his insights, which is a disinterest, bordering on disregard, for textual veracity. In general, traditional Talmudists were not overly concerned with bibliographic issues and girsaot (textual variants), but even within this tradition R. Hayyim stands out as extreme. One of the most glaring, and by extension often quoted, examples of R. Hayyim using a…

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Maimonides on Free Will, Divine Omniscience and Repentance

Maimonides on Free Will, Divine Omniscience and Repentance

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The problem of reconciling the notions of man’s free will and Divine omniscience is an ancient one. As early as Mishna Avot 3:15 Rabbi Akiva states that “everything is known [by God] but permission (i.e. free will) is given [to people]”. Maimonides begins to tackle this question in his Laws of Repentance (הלכות תשובה) from Book One (The Book of Science סּפּר המדע) of the Mishnah Torah. In chapter 5 paragraph 5 Maimonides brings up the conundrum of Divine Omniscience…

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Maimonides and Prophecy, R. Pinhas Lintop, R. José Faur, and More Examples of Censorship

Maimonides and Prophecy, R. Pinhas Lintop, R. José Faur, and More Examples of Censorship

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1. In my last post here I discussed whether Maimonides believed that the entire people of Israel experienced prophecy at Mt. Sinai. I neglected to refer to Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah 8:3, which states: לפי שנבואת משה רבנו אינה על פי האותות כדי שנערוך אותות זה לאותות זה, אלא בעינינו ראינוה ובאזנינו שמענוה כמו ששמע הוא This is one of those passages that presents problems for the interpreter, since what Maimonides says in the Mishneh Torah, that all Israel experienced prophecy…

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תורת הצורה והחומר וההעדר: ספרים המדברים בהשמטות הרמב”ם ובכללים להסבירם

תורת הצורה והחומר וההעדר: ספרים המדברים בהשמטות הרמב”ם ובכללים להסבירם

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ידוע הוא לכל יודע ספר המשנה תורה שאחת מהמידות שהמשנה תורה נדרש בה היא ההשמטה ממנו. כמעט כל מפרשי הרמב”ם הניחו כיסוד שהרמב”ם כוון לכלול בספרו כל התורה שבעל פה (כמו שהזכיר הרמב”ם בהקדמתו למשנה תורה), ואם יש דין חסר ממנו יש דברים בגו . אמנם גם לאחר שהוכרה ההשמטה בהרבה מקרים קשה לדעת מה ללמוד מזה; אם להחמיר או להקל, לטמא או לטהר, לפסול או להכשיר (ולעתים קרובות נחלקו בזה המפרשים), אבל הכל מודים שניתן ללמוד מכל השמטה. א….

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No Hell Below Us? The Controversy Over Rambam’s Stance On Punishment In the Afterlife

No Hell Below Us? The Controversy Over Rambam’s Stance On Punishment In the Afterlife

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סליחות: עזב-נא בן-אדם עזב-נא. עזב יקר עולם נודד נדוד. כי ערוך תפתה, בכל להב וכידוד. … עזב-נא בן-אדם עזב-נא. עזב נחת העולם הזה ושמחה. בטרם נוד רוחך, בכל פנה ורוחה. ועיניך תראינה גיהנם פתוחה. ושם תהיה נפשך שרופה וגם כסוחה. … Rabbi Natan Slifkin recently claimed: (By the way, according to Rambam, there is no such thing as Hell. People who don’t get to heaven just don’t go anywhere; they cease to exist.) This ex cathedra pronouncement notwithstanding, the matter…

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Upcoming December Auctions

Upcoming December Auctions

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In the next few weeks there are a bunch of auctions. First, is Sotheby’s auction of the “Delmonico” collection. This collection, of an anonymous collector, is amazing. It includes fifty incunabula with the balance of the auction being 16 and 17th century books. Included in the later portion are volumes of the first edition Bomberg Talmud printed on blue paper. These are the only known copies of these volumes. The incunabula includes the first edition of the Rambam’s commentary on…

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Rabbi Chaim Rapoport on the Contemporary 'Tribe of Levi' in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah

Rabbi Chaim Rapoport on the Contemporary 'Tribe of Levi' in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah

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In response to Professor Menachem Kellner’s thoughtful post at the Seforim blog regarding Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz’s recent article in the latest issue of Tradition and subsequent response at the Seforim blog, frequent contributor to the Seforim blog, Rabbi Chaim Rapoport of London, presents his latest offering below: שבט לוי” בספר ‘משנה תורה’ להרמב”ם ובזמן הזה” תגובות למאמר החכם פרופסר מנחם קלנר הרב חיים רפופורט לונדון אנגלי’ הקדמה בספר ‘משנה תורה’, בסוף הלכות שמיטה ויובל (פי”ג הי”ב והי”ג) ובסיום ‘ספר זרעים’,…

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Aryeh Leibowitz – Response to Professor Menachem Kellner

Aryeh Leibowitz – Response to Professor Menachem Kellner

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To the editors of the Seforim blog: In Professor Menachem Kellner’s spirited and scholarly post (“Who is the Person Whom Rambam Says Can be ‘Consecrated as the Holy of Holies’?”) at the Seforim blog, he argues that my inclusion of Rambam’s hilkhot Shemittah ve-Yovel passage is “based on a demonstrable misunderstanding of the Rambam,” and that this passage, understood properly, is not germane to the issue I am addressing. In this short response, I would like to address the cogency…

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Menachem Kellner – Who is the Person Whom Rambam Says Can be ‘Consecrated as the Holy of Holies’?

Menachem Kellner – Who is the Person Whom Rambam Says Can be ‘Consecrated as the Holy of Holies’?

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Menachem Kellner is Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa. Author of several dozen articles on Jewish philosophy, Kellner has written/edited fourteen books, including, most recently, Maimonides’ Confrontation With Mysticism (London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2006). This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog.Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz’s learned and interesting article in the most recent issue of Tradition (“The Pursuit of Scholarship and Economic Self-Sufficiency: Revisiting Maimonides’ Commentary to Pirkei Avot,” Tradition 40.3 (Fall 2007): 31-41) contained…

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