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Review of Kedushat Aviv: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l on the Sanctity of Time and Place

Review of Kedushat Aviv: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l on the Sanctity of Time and Place

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(Translated by David Strauss) Rav Elyakim Krumbein studied with Rav Soloveitchik at YU and made aliya in 1973. He has been a ram at Yeshivat Har Etzion since 1981 and heads its Tochnit Bekiut. He also served as a Pedagogic Advisor at Herzog College. Rav Krumbein’s guides for self-study on the Bavot, Ketubot and other tractates are widely used by Yeshiva students, and he has also written two volumes of study guides on Gittin and Kiddushin entitled Sho’el K’inyan. He…

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Review of My Father’s Journey by Sara Reguer

Review of My Father’s Journey by Sara Reguer

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About a year ago, Seforim Blog readers were informed by Prof. Marc Shapiro of the publication of Sara Reguer’s book My Father’s Journey, and they were further advised that this book would be of great value to anyone interested in the history of the yeshiva movement and Eastern European orthodoxy (see here). The following review illustrates the contribution the book indeed makes to these fields of study. This basis of this memoir is essentially a diary which affords readers a…

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Review of James A. Diamond, “Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon” (2014) by Menachem Kellner

Review of James A. Diamond, “Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon” (2014) by Menachem Kellner

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is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem, and the Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, where, among many other posts, he served as Dean of Students and Chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations, and founding director of Be-Zavta, a program in Jewish enrichment. His most recent book is Menachem Kellner: Jewish Universalism, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron Hughes in Brill’s Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, and…

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Review of Dovid Bashevkin’s Sefer Berogez Racheim Tizkor

Review of Dovid Bashevkin’s Sefer Berogez Racheim Tizkor

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Rabbi Yitzchok Oratz, a musmach of Beth Medrash Govoha, is the Rabbi and Director of the Monmouth Torah Links community in Marlboro, NJ. אהרן יצחק הלוי ארץ כי הוא ידע יצרנו: הערות והארות, ציונים ומראה מקומות, על עניניבחירה, חטא, ותשובה. מיוסד על ספר “ברגז רחם תזכור” להרב דוד אליקים בשבקין. Introduction In wrath, remember mercy. For He knows our nature . . . God knows the nature of every generation, Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin has written a Sefer uniquely appropriate for…

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Mehalekhet Bi-Darka – A Review Essay

Mehalekhet Bi-Darka – A Review Essay

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מלכה פיוטרקובסקי, מהלכה בדרכה: אתגרי החיים במבט הלכתי-ערכי, הוצאת ידיעות אחרונות, תל-אביב תשע”ד, 567 עמ’ Yael Levine The author holds a Ph.D. from the Talmud department at Bar Ilan University. She is the author of numerous articles related to women in Judaism. She recently published “Tefillot Li-Tevilla”. The following article is a critical review of the recently published book in Hebrew “Mehalekhet Bi-Darka”, a compilation of articles by Malka Peuterkovsky. The present review focuses on the chapter concerning women and…

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Book Review: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s Minchat Aviv

Book Review: Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s Minchat Aviv

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Minchat Aviv: Studies in Talmudic Topics (Hebrew) HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein Editor: Rav Elyakim Krumbein Jerusalem: Maggid Books and Yeshivat Har Etzion, 2014 xvi + 659 pages; source and subject indexes Available here. A person must exert considerable effort before producing words of Torah and wisdom. Toiling in Torah can be compared to toil in working the land: one must plow and sow, irrigate and fertilize, hoe and aerate, develop and cultivate, harvest and gather. Only after one completes all these…

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Book Review: The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky

Book Review: The House of Twenty Thousand Books by Sasha Abramsky

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For many Seforim blog readers, the name ‘Abramsky’ will instantly be associated with the personality of Rav Yechezkel Abramsky (1886-1976), the author of Hazon Yechezkel on the Tosefta. Born in Russia, imprisoned by the Soviets, released in the 1930’s after diplomatic intervention by the U.S. and Britain, he was for years the head of the London Beth Din before his retirement to Israel. But other readers will also know his son, Chimen (1916-2010), whose life followed a very different path,…

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Review of Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture by Shaye J.D. Cohen

Review of Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture by Shaye J.D. Cohen

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Shaye J. D. Cohen is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University. This is his first contribution to the Seforim blog. Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture. Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture. Edited by Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, and Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. xxviii+3361. These three hefty volumes,…

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Book review: Asaf Yedidya, Criticized Criticism – Orthodox Alternatives to Wissenschaft des Judentums 1873 – 1956

Book review: Asaf Yedidya, Criticized Criticism – Orthodox Alternatives to Wissenschaft des Judentums 1873 – 1956

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Criticized Criticism is a book which I think would greatly interest any reader of the Seforim Blog. It deals with the history of the Orthodox “alternatives” to secular Jewish Studies, as well as many important issues that religious Jewish Studies scholars face. In this, it fills a definitely felt lack in Jewish historiography. It follows a trend of recent works devoted to the history of specific aspects of Jewish Studies. The book is especially important since we do not yet…

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The Vilna Gaon, part 2 (Review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius)

The Vilna Gaon, part 2 (Review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius)

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Continued from here. Another reference by the Gaon to the Guide – in this case it is only attributed to him – is found in his comment to Bava Kamma 92b (commenting on (בירא דשתית מיניה לא תשדי בי קלא, which has been published in a number of different sources, most conveniently in the commentary Anaf Yosef to Ein Yaakov, Bava Kamma 92b. The Gaon quoted the Guide as saying that if you find one good thing in a book…

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Book Review: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE – 1492 CE

Book Review: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE – 1492 CE

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Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews, covering the period 1000 BCE to 1492 (actually 1497) CE, was for one week (October 5) at the top of the Guardian Bookshop Bestsellers list: a rare achievement for a serious book of Jewish history covering the pre-modern period. It was published in the middle of five one-hour prime-time Sunday evening BBC television presentations, for which Schama was the narrator, recounting his stories from various locations. The first of the five episodes had…

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The Vilna Gaon, Part 1: How Modern Was He?

The Vilna Gaon, Part 1: How Modern Was He?

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Eliyahu Stern, The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism (New Haven, 2013) Eliyahu Stern has set for himself a daunting task and argues his case with conviction. He intends to correct a widespread assumption shared not only by the general public, but by the scholarly community as well. According to this narrative, the Vilna Gaon (hereafter the Gaon) should not be seen as a traditionalist defender of the past, but actually a modern Jew and one…

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Lawrence Kaplan’s review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius

Lawrence Kaplan’s review of Eliyahu Stern, The Genius

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‘s review of the work which will be followed up by a three-part post by Marc Shapiro Eliyahu Stern, The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism. New Haven: Yale University Press 2013, pp. xiv+322.* My father, of blessed memory, was an Orthodox Jew of Lithuanian descent, a “Litvak.” Though he was a businessman all his life, he, like many traditional Litvaks, always kept up his study of classical Jewish texts, both biblical and rabbinic. I remember…

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New Seforim

New Seforim

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סידור רב עמרם גאון, מכון ירושלים, חלק ג סי’ נו-קג, תפילות חול. מרדכי, שבת, על פי כ”י, מכון ירושלים, רצג עמודים ר”י מלוניל על מגילה, יבמות, כתובת, מכון תלמוד הישראלי האמונות והדעות לרבנו סעדיה גאון, עם ביאור דרך אמונה לר’ דוד הנזיר, חלק א, שצב עמודים, כולל מבוא ופתיחה כללית לרס”ג. לוי חן לר’ לוי בן אברהם, מעשה מרכבה, מכ”י, ההדיר והוסיף מבוא והערות חיים קרייסל, האיגוד למדעי היהדות, 330 עמודים , [כרך שלישי מתוך החיבור] [ניתן לקבל תוכן העניינים]….

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