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Marc Shapiro: What Do Adon Olam and ס"ט Mean?
What Do Adon Olam and ס"ט Mean ? [1]byBy Marc B. Shapiro ס"ט1. People often refer to me as a Modern Orthodox intellectual. There are actually quite a number of us out there. If you hear someone using...
View ArticleAzariah de Rossi on Chad Gadya
As a somewhat belated followup to an earlier discussion at my AJHistory blog (z"l), I would like to add the following to the list of interesting-academic-footnotes:There is something reminiscent of...
View ArticleThe Custom of Refraining from Meat on Rosh HaShana
What follows is a post from the Seforim blog's frequent and erudite contributor, R. Eliezer Brodt. This post is an excerpt of a chapter from his upcoming book on the halachos and minhagim of Rosh...
View ArticleMachnesi Rachamim - Praying to Angels
For those interested in the topic of the permissibility of praying to angels and the controversy surrounding this topic see the post on Machnesi Rachamim and Plagiarism which has been updated a bit...
View ArticleWebsite with Epherma Material on the Shmitta Controversy
The JNUL has an excellent site regarding the history of the Shmitta controversy. They have the materials divided by year and the materials contain broadsides and other important but difficult to...
View ArticleHistory of Eruvin Controversies
Eruv Online has an excellent series on the history of eruvin controversies. Specifically, the series traces the history over the use of 16 amot to define a reshut haRabbim. The discussion is...
View ArticleTwo Links of Note
First, just about the entire volume in memory of Dov Rappel is available for free online here. This includes articles by, inter alia, Moshe Halmish, Yosef Tabory, and Stefan Rief. Second, there is a...
View ArticleCandles on Yom Kippur: Reinstating a Lost Minhag
The Physical and Spiritual Light of Yom Kippur:Reinstating a Lost Minhag to Enhance the Spirituality of Today’s Synagogueby: Rabbis Aaron Goldscheider & Barry Kornblau* Introduction“Or Zarua...
View ArticleOf Tahanun and Yarhrzeit bukhs
A fascinating anecdote in a recently published biography of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel struck me as very worthy of sharing with the readers of the Seforim blog:[Heschel] confided to Samuel Dresner...
View ArticleTeffilah Zakah: History of a Controversial Prayer
Teffilah Zakah:History of a Controversial Prayer*Yom Kippur has many unique prayers, many of them have been added through the centuries. For instance, R. Hayyim Yosef Dovid Azulai (Hida) has a longer...
View ArticleReview of R. Yedidyah Tiyah Weil’s Levushi Badim: With An Eye Towards...
Review of R. Yedidyah Tiyah Weil’s Levushi Badim:With An Eye Towards Yom KippurBy Rabbi Eliezer BrodtOne aspect of our rich literature that is rarely tapped into properly is the area of Sifrei Derush....
View ArticleJay R. Berkovitz -- The Napoleonic Sanhedrin: Halachic Foundations and...
In earlier post at the Seforim blog, Dan Rabinowitz reviewed the Jay R. Berkovitz's book מסורת ומהפיכה-תרבות יהודית בצרפת בראשית העת החדשה, which discusses French Jewry and specifically the changes...
View ArticleLatest Hebrew Journals
Although, I hope to do a more complete posts on these, two Hebrew journals, Yeshurun, and Or Yisrael have come out with their Tishrei editions. Or Yisrael contains a section, from various authors,...
View ArticleShaving on Chol HaMo'ad the Never-ending Controversy
While we are generally aware that denominations other than Orthodox changes and adapt to the times, in reality Orthodoxy has also made significant changes. Of course, these changes are all within the...
View ArticleThe Pitfalls of Disagreeing with the Gra
Sunday, the second day of Hol HaMo'ad, was the 210th yahrzeit of the Gra. The Gra, a towering figure in modern Judaism, was not immune from criticism. His views, like any other's were subject to...
View ArticleNew Books
1. Machon Yerushalayim has begun to publish a new edition of the Ramban on the Torah. In this edition they include the Ramban, based mostly on the Lisbon, 1489 edition. The commentaries of the...
View ArticleInternational Conference in Memory of Moritz Steinschneider
In memory of Moritz Steinschneider's unrivaled studies in Hebrew Bibliography and the actuality of his research 100 years after his death an International Centennial Conference will be held in Berlin...
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Where's Shai Agnon?
In the latest issue of Yeshurun (a fuller review will be coming shortly), they published a letter from R. Y.M. Gordon to Shai Agnon. In light of this, an erudite reader, Yisroel Rottenberg, was kind...
View ArticleR. Yaakov Lipshitz and Heter Mechirah
R. Yaakov Lipshitz and Heter Mechirahby R. Eliezer BrodtAs per Sheuy R's request a short post on shemitah:It is virtually impossible to write up a review of the literature out there on shemitah...
View ArticleWho Wrote the Mekore Minhagim?(Part II)
This is a continuation of this prior post, in order to fully understand the following it may pay to reread the older post here.Previously, I had attempted to reconstruct when Finkelstein had published...
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