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Tag: Bibliographical Oddities

The Hatam Sofer’s Retraction of his Approbation to the Pinner Talmud

The Hatam Sofer’s Retraction of his Approbation to the Pinner Talmud

Of late, translations of the talmud have become a popular topic. [1] In the history of translations, the translation done by Dr. Efraim Pinner, is an important one for multiple reasons. Among other firsts, the Pinner translation was the first German translation of the talmud. Pinner envisioned a complete translation of the entire talmud but only one volume was produced, a translation meskhta Berachot. This edition contains multiple approbations, there is, however, one approbation does not appear in the book….

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A Response to Dr. Shapiro: A Defense of the Torah Temimah

A Response to Dr. Shapiro: A Defense of the Torah Temimah

A Response to Dr. Shaprio: A Defense of the Torah Temimahby: Y. Lander (of the Ishim v’Shitot blog) I read with interest Dr. Shapiro’s recent post questioning the accuracy of R’ Baruch Epstein’s tale concerning his dialogue with the Netziv’s first wife, Rayna Batya. Dr. Shapiro points to several discrepancies in R. Epstein’s account and based on those discrepancies posits that R’ Baruch deliberately contrived the story in order to call attention to the plight of women in his time….

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Marc B. Shapiro – Clarifications of Previous Posts

Marc B. Shapiro – Clarifications of Previous Posts

Clarifications of Previous Posts by Marc B. Shapiro [The footnote numbers reflects the fact this is a continuation of this earlier post.] 1. I was asked to expand a bit on how I know that R. Barukh Epstein’s story with Rayna Batya is contrived. In this story we see her great love of Torah study and her difficulty in accepting a woman’s role in Judaism. Certainly, she must have been a very special woman, and I assume that she was,…

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Leket Yosher – A Closer Appraisal in Light of a Recent Controversy

Leket Yosher – A Closer Appraisal in Light of a Recent Controversy

In a recent discussion in the journal Or Yisrael concerning the permissibility of using ArtScroll gemaras — for PDFs of the articles, see here — one source deserves closer scrutiny. In particular, some authorities who are against the use of ArtScroll gemaras cite to a passage in the Leket Yosher in support of their opinion. Thus, an examination of the Leket Yosher is appropriate. The Leket Yosher was compiled by R. Yosef ben Moshe (1423-c.1490), a student of R. Israel…

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Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3

Marc B. Shapiro – Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3

Forgery and the Halakhic Process, part 3 By Marc B. Shapiro I thought that I had exhausted all I had to say about Rabbi Zvi Benjamin Auerbach’s edition of the Eshkol — see my first two posts at the Seforim blog, here and here [and elaborations] — but thanks to some helpful comments from readers, there is some more material that should be brought to the public’s attention. Even before looking at this, let me express my gratitude to Dan…

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Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

Prof. Elliott Horowitz — Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmud

In a previous post at the Seforim blog, Prof. Elliott Horowitz of Bar Ilan University and co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review, responded to a discussion of Bugs Bunny’s purported Jewish identity. This is his second contribution to the Seforim blog. We hope that you enjoy. Edmund Wilson, Hebrew, Christmas, and the Talmudby Elliott Horowitz As is well known, during the 1950’s Edmund Wilson, the great (and perhaps greatest) American man of letters, began studying Hebrew, both in order to read…

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