Book week 2017

By Eliezer Brodt

Book week just began in Eretz Yisrael. As I have written the past ten years, every year in Israel, around Shavous time, there is a period of about ten days called Shavuah Hasefer – Book Week (for previous years lists see  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,  here and here). Many of the companies offer sales for the whole month. Shavuah HaSefer is a sale which takes place all across the country in stores, malls and special places rented out just for the sales. There are places where strictly “frum” seforim are sold and other places have most of the secular publishing houses. Many publishing houses release new titles specifically at this time.

In my lists, I sometimes include an older title, from a previous year, if I just noticed the book. As I have written in the past, I do not intend to include all the new books. Eventually some of these titles will be the subject of their own reviews. I try to include titles of broad interest. As this list shows although book publishing in book form has dropped greatly worldwide, Academic books on Jewish related topics are still coming out in full force.

As in previous years I am offering a service, for a small fee to help one purchase these titles (or titles of previous years). For more information about this email me at Eliezerbrodt-at-gmail.com. Part of the proceeds will be going to support the efforts of the the Seforim Blog.

A Dictionary of
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period [מהדורה שלישית]

Some Highlights of the Mossad HaRav Kook Sale of 2017

By Eliezer Brodt

For over thirty years, starting on Isru Chag of Pesach, Mossad HaRav Kook publishing house has made a big sale on all of their publications, dropping prices considerably (some books are marked as low as 65% off). Each year they print around twenty new titles. They also reprint some of their older, out of print titles. Some years important works are printed; others not as much. This year they have printed some valuable works, as they did last year. See here and here for a review of previous year’s titles.

If you’re interested in a PDF of their complete catalog, email me at eliezerbrodt@gmail.com

As in previous years, I am offering a service, for a small fee, to help one purchase seforim from this sale. The sale’s last day is Tuesday. For more information about this, email me at Eliezerbrodt-at-gmail.com. Part of the proceeds will be going to support the efforts of the Seforim Blog.

What follows is a list and brief description of some of their newest titles.

This is a critical edition of this Geonic work. A few years back, the editor, Yonason Etz Chaim put out a volume of the Geniza fragments of this work (also printed by Mossad HaRav Kook).

 This is the long-awaited volume two of the Gr”a on Shir Hashirim, heavily annotated by R’ Dovid Cohen.

This is a new edition of the beautiful work on Siddur from the Kesav V’Hakabalah, which has not been available for a while.

 This is a small work based on R’ Dovid Tzvi Hoffman’s lectures on Tefilah (translated from German). Of course, being that it’s from R’ Hoffman it’s important to own.

This is a large collection from a wide range of sources on the interesting topic of Chasairos V’yeseiros in Tanach.

This is an annotated edition of the small work of the Minsker Godol on Kiddush Hashem. For the back story behind why this work was written, see the following passage from R’ Meir Halperin’s classic and extraordinary biography, Hagodol MiMinsk.

This is an extremely useful and well organized work, based on the author’s PhD dissertation, dealing with many aspects of K’reiyas Hatorah before, during and after, such as Hagbah, the amount of Aliyos called, standing, selling of Aliyos and Shenayim Mikrah V’echad Targum.

This is a very useful collection of fifteen essays of Orthodox Theological Responses to the Holocaust. In 2007, Oxford University Press printed a book in English titled Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses during and after the Holocaust edited by Steven T. Katz, Shlomo Biderman, and Gershon Greenberg (689 pp.). The Oxford volume includes almost of all the essays that appear in this new volume and a few additional important orthodox responses not found in this new Hebrew volume. Its rather strange that there is no mention of the Oxford volume in the various introductions and notes, even though Gershon Greenberg, one of the editors of the Hebrew volume was also one of the editors of the English volume. Moreover, in the Hebrew edition, Greenberg  never cites the Oxford volume; only his essays about each response.

I would just like to add one source to the bibliography about the essays of R’ Kalonymos Shapiro from his Eish Kodesh. Recently, Dr. Daniel Reiser published a beautiful facsimile edition of R’ Kalonymos’ autograph manuscript of this classic  work alongside an annotated transcript. (TOC available upon request).

Just a few years ago, the great Talmid Chacham, writer and bibliographer (and much more), R’ Tovia Preschel, was niftar at the age of 91. R’ Preschel authored thousands of articles on an incredibly wide range of topics, in a vast array of journals and newspapers both in Hebrew and English. For a nice, brief obituary about him from Professor Leiman, see here. Upon his passing, his daughter, Dr. Pearl Herzog, immediately started collecting all of his material in order to make it available for people to learn from. Already by the Shloshim a small work of his articles was released. A bit later, she opened a web site devoted to his essays. This website is constantly updated with essays. It’s incredible to see this man’s range of knowledge (well before the recent era of computer search engines). A few months ago, Mossad HaRav Kook released volume one (424 pp.) containing some of his essays, and right before Pesach volume two was released (482 pp.) This is an extremely special treasure trove of essays and articles on a broad variety of topics. It includes essays related to Halacha, Minhag, bibliography, Pisgamim, history of Gedolim, book reviews, travels and personal encounters and essays about great people he knew or met (e.g.: R’ Chaim Heller, R’ Abramsky, R’ Shlomo Yosef Zevin, R’ Meshulem Roth, R’ Reuven Margolis, Professor Saul Lieberman). Each volume leaves you thirsting for more. At least another two volumes are in preparation by his daughter, Dr. Pearl Herzog. I wish her much Hatzlacha in this great service for readers of all kinds all over the world. Here is a table of contents of the two volumes.

Vol. I:

Vol  II:

Book
announcement New edition of Avudraham and other works

By Eliezer Brodt

אבודרהם, עם הגהות
וביאורים תהלה לדוד, א, ירושלים תשס”א, שכא עמודים

אבודרהם, א, ירושלים
תשע”ה, נערך מחדש על פי דפוס ראשון מוגה ומפוסק עם מקורת מלאים, מדור הערות
הארות וביאורים מקורות ומקבילות לדברי רבינו, תפילות חול, 429 עמודים

אבודרהם, ב, ירושלים
תשע”ו, כהנ”ל, תפילות שבת ומועדים, 625 עמודים

ר’ אליהו
גרינצייג, קרואי מועד, פסח, שעה עמודים

הנ”ל, קרואי
מועד, ראש השנה, שלג עמודים

הנ”ל, קרואי
מועד, ספירת העומר שבועות, רמט עמודים

הנ”ל, קרואי
מועד, חנוכה, רצה עמודים

מקרא העדה, חידושים
וביאורים על סדר פרשיות התורה, א, בראשית-חיי שרה, תקסד עמודים

Many
years ago, while still a bochur learning in the Mir, a friend of mine took me
along for a Shabbas meal, promising me I’d meet an amazing Talmid Chochum
obsessed with seforim. This was my first encounter with R’ Eliyhau Greensweig. My
friend did not exaggerate in any way. The whole meal I simply sat there drooling
at the wall-to-wall seforim library. Later I learned this was only part of his
library. This was a collection which I had never before seen the likes of.
During the meal we spoke about numerous seforim and random sugyos; I was simply
blown away. From that Shabbas, I began visiting him every few weeks and we
would speak for a few hours about different topics and seforim. His vast knowledge
was, simply put, incredible. One additional attribute which always struck me
while talking with R’ Greensweig was his tremendous humility. Many times, when
specific topics came up, he would say “I wrote a whole kuntres on
this”. Once, he took out a huge stack of papers and said to me “this
is a work on Rambam Sanhedrin”. Over time, it came out that he had ghost
written numerous articles and works. Once I mentioned to him that I had noticed
that a specific volume of a particular set of seforim has a different style
than previous volumes and that whoever wrote the notes is familiar with “not
the ‘standard stuff'”. He smiled at me and said “guess who wrote
those notes…?” Still, much of his work has appeared under his own name. One
of the main projects which he had worked on for many years was  Otzar Mifarshei HaTalmud from Machon
Yerushalayim. Without getting into the pros or cons of this work, anyone
familiar with it knows it has references to thousands of seforim. This was done
long before many of the modern Torah computer programs came on to the playing
field (which is beside the point, as R’ Greensweig does not know how to use a
computer search engine!). One description I had heard of him was “he was
Mechon Yerushalyim’s ‘secret weapon'”.

Over the past
twenty five years various prominent Torah Journals, such as Yeshurun, Yerushaseinu,
Beis Aharon V’Yisroel, Moriah, Kol Torah and others, have
featured numerous articles authored by him. Some of the times he would print a
section of the Avudraham with his erudite notes; other times the article
was related to the Torah reading (Parsha) or an upcoming Yom Tov.

In 2001, an
annotated edition of part of the classic work Avudraham appeared on the seforim
market. Printed by the Or Hasefer Publishing house, it included an anonymous
commentary called Tehilah Ledovid.

The significance
of the Avudraham is well known and hardly needs mentioning here; just to
cite the well-known Haskamah of the Nodeh Beyehudah to the Prague
edition:

Avrhom E. Harkavy writes:

For anyone looking to learn through an enjoyable
sefer about Tefilah and Yom Tovim – this the work for him.

The notes in the
Or Hasefer edition impressed numerous experts and Talmedei Chachomim. However
almost no one knew who the author was, as he chose to remain anonymous. The
author is, of course, none other than R’ Eliyahu Greensweig. Interestingly, the
introduction of the 2001 volume “claims” to be based upon manuscripts,
sadly however, this is not the case. This claim was something the publisher
added by himself after he checked up a few things in manuscript; R’ Greensweig
himself never checked up manuscripts. The primary aim of his notes was to provide
the sources for the material quoted (utilized) by the Avudraham and to
cite those sources who discuss the sefer. Most accurately, the notes are
encyclopedic and full of thousands of sources, many from rare seforim. The
notes are also full of “Torah” and at times perhaps a bit lengthy (as
is common these days). Additionally, it is clear from the material cited that
the author has an excellent command of academic literature, as well. For the
most part all these sources could be found in R’ Greensweig’s incredible
library! However, despite the great value in this edition, until recently only
one volume was available leaving many to wonder when the rest would (ever?) be
completed.

In 2015, volume
one was reissued in a limited edition with corrections and many additions by
the Keren Re’em publishing house. One useful correction was that some of the
longer notes were removed for the body and placed in the appendix. In the
summer of 2016, volume two was released privately for the first time.

A few months ago
the two volumes were released for sale to the public distributed by Yefeh Nof publishers,
with the final volume, volume three, due to be released in the summer, BE”H. I
highly recommend this work and am sure that many will benefit from these
volumes.

Besides for this new work on Avudraham,
as I mentioned previously, R’ Greensweig has written voluminously over the
years. Thanks to the efforts of his sons and some generous sponsors, some of
his other works have just been printed. To date, four volumes on the Yom Tovim
have appeared in a paperback edition, each one including the related section of the Avudraham
in the back, with R’ Greensweig’s invaluable notes. The most recent of the four
seforim is on Pesach. A few weeks ago, a hard cover volume on the first
half of Chumash Bereishis appeared, with a total of eighty pieces! All
this material is pieces he wrote over the years; each week he would write on
one topic, and then add to it when he found more material, with a small
percentage of the articles having appeared in various journals throughout the
years. One does not have to wait until Chumash Bereishis arrives to
learn this sefer as the pieces are encyclopedic and useful all year around (see
below for the table of contents). One weakness, pointed out in the introduction,
is sometimes there can be a certain amount of redundancy and sometimes the
pieces smack of a lack of proper editing. The reason for these drawbacks is that
proper editing (and condensing the redundant pieces) would hold up and delay
printing.

Here are the table
of contents of some of these works, showing the wide range of topics discussed.
A PDF sample piece of the Avudraham and of one article is available upon request,
also available upon request is a much more in-depth Table of contents of the
works.

Copies of the newly
published two volume set of Avudraham should be available in regular stores.
The paperback works on Yomim Tovim are available for purchase at Begieleisen in
Boro Park and Judaica Plaza in Lakewood.

New book announcement; He-Gedolim

By Eliezer Brodt

הגדולים: אישים שעיצבו את פני היהדות החרדית בישראל, בעריכת בנימין בראון, נסים ליאון, קובץ מאמרים לכבוד פרופ’ מנחם פרידמן ובהשראתו, מגנס מכון ון ליר, 968 עמודים

For the most part, academic books are not found or read in regular “layman” or Chareidi circles, nor are those types of books available at most “seforim stores.” From time to time a volume emerges from the world of academia, that breaks through the status-quo and captivates and makes waves among various crowds of regular people and Chareidim. Examples include, the works of Professor Dovid Assaf (here) which many Chassdim were fascinated to read, and the work of Professor Benny Brown on the Chazon Ish, which the Yeshiva world was very curious to read. When Brown’s book (see here) came out a few years back, over 1,000 copies were sold in a period of two weeks. That may well be the record for an academic book (in Hebrew) selling in such a short amount of time. There were advertisements in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak stating that this work is a must-have for a Jewish home. Until today it’s unknown who put up the signs. Of course, within a few months, the book was attacked, as mentioned here.

This new volume, Ha-Geldolim, hot off the press from Magnes and Van Leer, promises to be another such work. It contains thirty chapters discussing Charedi Gedolim, from all different constituencies, the Yeshivah, Chassidic and Sefardi world, many of which have never really been properly discussed in academia. A similar lacuna was identified by Israel Ta Shema, in that instance, the lack of study of the Achronim. Keneset Mekhekarim, vol. 4, 283

Just to give a plug to the Seforim Blog – it is quoted at least three times, (I even made it into a footnote; this is my second “Footnote” – of prominence in academic literature similar to the movie The Footnote 🙂 ) Professor Marc Shapiro, a regular contributor to the Seforim blog, has an essay in the volume. I am sure some of these essays will be the starting point of much further research and discussion of these Gedolim.

Of course, the immediate reaction of many when they look through the table of contents is: “why isn’t so and so there?” and “what exact criteria is applied to determine who ‘gets in’ to the volume?”. The editors anticipated these issues and others, and deal with it in the introduction (PDF available upon request, see my email address below).

The volume is dedicated to Professor Menachem Friedman, who is one of the “founders” of the academic research of the Charedi world.

Here are the Table of Contents of this special work.

The book can be purchased via Magnes Press or through me at Eliezerbrodt@gmail.com

Part of the proceeds will be going to help support the efforts of the Seforim Blog.

Copies of this work will be arriving at Biegeleisen shortly.

Mossad HaRav Kook Sale 2016

By Eliezer Brodt

For over thirty years, starting on Isru
Chag of Pesach, Mossad HaRav Kook publishing house has made a big sale on
all of their publications, dropping prices considerably (some books are marked as low as 65% off). In recent years their practice has been to publish several new
titles in the few weeks prior to the sale; during the rest of the year not as many titles are printed. They also reprint some of their older out of print titles. Some years important works are printed; others not as much. This year they have printed many valuable works, as they did last year. (See here
for a review of some of last year’s titles.)

If you’re interested in a PDF of
their complete catalog email me at eliezerbrodt@gmail.com

As in previous years, I am offering
a service, for a small fee, to help one purchase seforim from this sale.–The
sale’s last day is Sunday. For more information about this, email me at
Eliezerbrodt-at-gmail.com. Part of the proceeds will be going to support the
efforts of the Seforim Blog.

What follows is a list and brief
description of some of their newest titles.

1. ר’ אברהם אבן עזרא, ספר צחות, מהדיר: ר’ מרדכי
גודמן, עניני דקדוק בלשון הקדוש ופירוש פסוקים קשים לפי פשוטם ודקדוקם, רצח עמודים

2. ר’ אברהם אבן עזרא, ספר מאזנים, מהדיר: ר’ מרדכי
גודמן, עניני דקדוק בלשון הקדוש ופירוש פסוקים קשים לפי פשוטם ודקדוקם, רי עמודים

These
two volumes are critical editions of the Ibn Ezra works Sefer Tzachus
and Sefer Moznayim, based on manuscripts and include numerous
useful notes and indexes.

3. ר’ יוסף חיון, פירוש לתהלים מכ”י, תרסה עמודים

This
work printed once before in 1522. This edition is based on manuscripts. The
Pirush is by one of the talmidim of R’ Yitzchack Kanpanton and is more Peshat
oriented. It includes an introduction and notes.

4. ר’ משה איסרליש הרמ”א, תורת חטאת,על פי
כ”י ודפוס ראשון עם הערות, תמח עמודים

This
is a new edition of the Rama classic work Toras Chatas based upon an
hitherto unused manuscript. In the introduction the editor explains various
reasons for the significance of printing this edition, based on this new
manuscript.

5. חשבון הנפש, מהדורה מתוקנת עם הוספות רבות, 24+ קעה
עמודים

This
is yet another edition of the famous classic Musar book which has
“ties” to Benjamin Franklin (a subject I will hopefully return to).
This volume begins with a very good introduction and includes many useful notes
throughout the work. It also includes some new pieces from the author’s other
manuscripts.

6. ר’ אהרן מרקוס, קסת הסופר, פירוש על בראשית- לך לך,
כולל מפתחות, תנג עמודים

This
is a retyped version of R’ Aron Marcus’s work on Chumash. The rest of the work
is lost. Some are fans of his, others not (see my Likutei Eliezer, p.
63), but it is definitely an interesting read. This new edition includes an
index.

7. ר’ אברהם לנדא, צלותא דאברהם, תתקפז
עמודים

It’s
special news for many that this classic has been reprinted, as it has been
sought after by many for years since it was last in print. This work is one of
the best collections out there on Tefilah. It systematically deals with the
sources for the weekday siddur, based on a wide range of classic sources. It
also deals with the Nuschaos of Tefilah. This edition includes corrections and additions
to the previous versions. 

8. אוסף כתביו של דב זלוטניק, ב’ חלקים, 287+389
עמודים

This
is a collection of all of the late Professor Dov Zlotnick’s writings, in Hebrew
and English. Included are several articles about his teacher Professor Saul
Leiberman as well as a collection of various articles containing material from
the notes of his great teacher’s personal copies of seforim which Prof.
Zlotnick had published. In addition, this collection includes his book Pillar
of Iron: the Mishna which has been out of print for some time along his
introduction to his edition of the Tractate of Mourning for Yale Press
(with some notes of his on the side).

9. ר’ ראובן רז, הרב קוק בין חסידים
למתנגדים, מפגש של שלושה עולמות ויחסם לציונות, 200 עמודים

Looking
at the title of the book and its table of contents it appears to have
interesting material related to topics such as R’ Kook and Chasidim, the Gra,
R’ Chaim Volozhiner, Ger Chasidus and more. Admittedly, I have not yet had
a chance to get deeper into the book.

10.ר’ נריה גוטל, שלמי שמחה, עיוני מועדים
וזמנים, 629 עמודים

This
work from R’ Gutel is a collection of his articles printed in numerous journals
spanning a wide range of topics. Many (including myself) are great fans of his,
especially from his classic work Histanut Hatvi’im B’Halacha.

Here
is a very accurate description of the work as it appears on the back:

יש שימצא
בה בקעה למדנית ויש שימצא בה ניתוח מחקרי, יש שיעדיף היבט הלכתי מעשי, ויש שיבכר
דווקא זווית הגותית אגדית פעמים שהמאמר בה בארוכה ופעמים שהוא בא דווקא  בקצרה וכן הלאה על דרך זה. לאחר פרסומם הראשון
עלו חלק מן המאמרים על שלחנם של גדולי ישראל, וזכו להארות הערות והתייחסויות מצדם
התגובות שבכתב הובאו בספר זה, והן מתפרסמות בו לראשונה יחד עם המאמרים שפורסמו זה
מכבר. בנוסף צורפו לספר זה מספר מאמרים שטרם ראו אור.

Here
is a scan of the table of contents to give one some sense of the wide range of
subjects:

11. ר’ איתם הנקין הי”ד, אש תמיד,
חידושים וביאורי דינים על סדר שלחן ערוך ומשנה ברורה, 369 עמודים

It’s
only been a few months since the terrible tragedy of the murder of R’ Eitam
Henkin and his wife. R’ Eitam was a special and unique person combining many
talents all in one. He was a great talmid chacham, Historian and talented writer all “wrapped
up” in one package. This work was something he had completed before his murder
and which he was very proud of. It received many impressive Haskomos which in
my opinion (for whatever it’s worth) are not exaggerated at all. He had the
unique ability to write clearly and concisely – penetrating to the heart of the
issue. This is a very valuable contribution to the world of Halacha
specifically Hilchos Shabbos. Sample pages are available upon request.