The Seforim Blog

Rashi BaMidbar 22:9- “Taut Sofrim” or “Agadot Chalukot?” By Eli Genauer Summary: Here we find polar opposite approaches to a Stirah in Rashi’s commentary to the Torah. One approach maintains that Rashi used two different Midrashic sources for his contradictory comments, and the other solves the Stirah by saying that one of the comments attributed to Rashi is actually a Taut Sofrim. There is a very perplexing verse towards the beginning of Parshat Balak: ט:וַיָּבֹא אֱלֹקים אֶל-בִּלְעָם וַיֹּאמֶר מִי הָאֲנָשִׁים…

Read More Read More

Rosh Hashana 23b – The Missing Map – Were We Deprived of a Map Drawn by Rashi? Eli Genauer The Mishnah on Rosh Hashana 22b discusses the signal fires which were lit to inform the residents of Bavel of the Kiddush HaChodesh in Yerushalayim. מַתְנִי׳: בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה הָיוּ מַשִּׂיאִין מַשּׂוּאוֹת….. MISHNAH: Initially, after the court sanctified the new month they would light torches on the mountaintops, from one peak to another, to signal to the community in Babylonia that the month…

Read More Read More

Sukkah 4a “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” By Eli Genauer This post is is l’zecher nishmas my uncle and rebbe, Rabbi Sam Genauer ZT”L whose yahrtzeit is the second day of Av. Rabbi Genauer was a talmid of Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik at RIETS. מסכת סוכה ד׳ עמוד א׳ The maximum height of a Sukkah is twenty Amot. The Gemara discusses a situation where the Sukkah is slightly more than twenty Amot high and one builds a raised platform inside the…

Read More Read More

A Comment of Rashi Found Only in “Defusim Me’Ucharim” On Shemot 31:15  By Eli Genauer Summary: We find a lengthy comment attributed to Rashi which is only found in what is termed “Defusim Me’Ucharim”. The comment first appears in the Sefer Yosef Da’at (Prague 1609) who attributes it to a D’fus Yashan and a Klaf Yashan Noshan. I did not find it in any of the over 60 manuscripts I checked nor in any early printed edition.[1] It was incorporated…

Read More Read More

“What if the Maharal of Prague Had Access to Leipzig 1 and Other Manuscripts?” On Shemos 23:19 – Rashi on ראשית בכורי אדמתך By Eli Genauer Summary: There is a statement in Rashi which appears in the overwhelming majority of early Rashi manuscripts, and in early printed editions. But because Gur Aryeh and others did not have access to these manuscripts, and because they felt that what Rashi said was incorrect, they ascribed the statement to a טעות סופר. Knowing…

Read More Read More

Four Perplexing Words in Rashi By Eli Genauer Shemot Perek 11, Pasuk 9: (ט) וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, לֹא-יִשְׁמַע אֲלֵיכֶם פַּרְעֹה–לְמַעַן רְבוֹת מוֹפְתַי, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃ Al HaTorah (based on the manuscript Leipzig 1) records Rashi’s comment on למען רבות מופתי as follows: רש“י: למען רבות מופתי – מכת בכורות, וקריעת ים סוף, ולנער את מצרים. Here is Leipzig 1: Artscroll Sapirstein edition (Brooklyn 1994) adds the words “מופתי שנים, רבות שלשה” in brackets at the beginning. The words appear without any type…

Read More Read More