Dan at Seforim has a very interesting post on a number of facets of early illustrated haggadot, especially those from the Prague haggadah (1526). He describes an intersting comment found in the Prague haggadah (see his post for the text itself). In the margin at the mention of marror the bitter herb, is the following [...]
In a post commenting on the recent Israeli elections, Eugene Volokh alludes to a story which he had previously written about, “The Tale of the Two Brothers” (the new “version” of the story which he brings might actually be closer to the original than he may have known). He thought that it was “Talmudic”, and [...]
Thoughts on Antiquity has posted that apparently a large number of Sumerian tablets have been found in Ur (yes, where Abraham is from). Iraq is of great importance for Biblical studies. Previously discovered Sumerian tablets have influenced much of what we know about the Biblical world and one can see both here and here some [...]
In the past few years a number of people who suffer from Celiac disease, a condition which results in “gluten-intolerance”, have been eating matzah made from Oats (Avena sativa) in order to fulfill their mitzvah of eating matzah on Passover. As is known from Mishnah Pesahim 2:5, only matzah made from one of the five [...]
While Marcus Jastrow’s English-Aramaic dictionary has been online for sometime, this version was in PDF format and divided into sections according to page number, making it not so useful for quick-reference. S.H. has posted to mail-Jewish about another version of Jastrow online here which I was previously unaware of. It is much easier to use [...]
The New York Times has an article about the expansion of the Manhattan Eruv. The article mentions that the Lower East Side will be left out of the eruv and discusses a previous eruv, or according to the article an attempt at establishing one, on the Lower East Side. See this post by Eruv Online [...]
Being that the length of this week’s Torah reading is going to try the best of us, I just found a very interesting article by Harvey Goldberg. The article is called “Sephardi Rabbinic ‘Openness’ in Nineteenth-Century Tripoli: Examining a Modern Myth in Context”. Goldberg, an expert on North African Jewry, raises the possibility that the [...]
In Makor Rishon there is an article (in Hebrew) about the famous Shtiblach in Old Katamon. It describes how it has been able to both evolve and thrive along with the neighborhood. Last summer I was able to attend minyan there most days and anybody who has the opportunity should try and pay it a [...]
The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at UPenn has announced the Twelfth Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies. The title is The Jewish Book: Material Texts and Comparative Contexts and is from May 1-3, 2006. Information can be found here. Some of the many lectures include: Joseph Hacker:16th-Century Jewish Censorship in ItalyMoshe Rosman: Who Read [...]
I have been meaning to find a little more material on this and was intending to post on St. Patrick’s Day, but before I forget I thought that everyone should know that recently in Ireland they repealed a law from 1181 which prohibited Jews from possessing armor. So if anybody was planning a trip to [...]
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