Although known to many for his popular history book, A History of the Jews, the late historian Cecil Roth is known in the scholarly world for many publications, among them numerous articles on Hebrew book publishing, his Jews in the Renaissance, The History of the Jews of Italy, Dona Gracia of the House of Nasi [...]
I just read in Haaretz an article reporting some of R. Israel Rosen’s statements regarding the problem of rockets from Gaza. One can read the article for details or the column itself here in Hebrew (it’s at the end). In addition the article said that “Earlier in the week, the settlers’ rabbinical council expressed [...]
Hopefully this will be the first in a number of posts examining the important work of R. Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg z”l, the Tzitz Eliezer.
There was a recent post at Seforim which discussed the correspondance between the scholar of Geonic literature R. Dr. Abraham Eliyahu Harkavy (1835-1919) and certain rabbinic figures. One of the other [...]
A few people have pointed out to me a number of posts which might be of interest in connection to Thanksgiving. This on whether Thanksgiving falls into the prohibition of Hukkot haGoyim (The Laws of the Nations), and here (more of a derash) and here on the kashrut of Turkey. Thanksgiving Sameah.
In what may be a first, a Torah scroll is being completed by a soferet (female scribe). Jen Taylor Friedman is almost finished writing a Torah scroll for United Hebrew Congregation of Chesterfield, MO and you can see a TV news broadcast about it here. Jen has a very informative web site about [...]
I just saw at Hyde Park that R. Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg z”l, the author of the collection of responsa Tzitz Eliezer, passed away in Jerusalem today at the age of 89. R. Waldenberg was a true giant of rabbinic scholarship. He is best known for his many responsa written about bio-medical issues [...]
Dan at Seforim has two very good recent posts. The first is on Ghosts, Demons, and Their Halakhic Status. The second is actually a short article by Dr. Sid Leiman, Two Cases of Non-Jews with Rabbinic Ordination.
Every once in a while there is a used book sale at JTS which presents the opportunity to stumble upon books for a very low price, and sometimes even ones that are out-of-print and hard to find. Yesterday the Vaad Gemilut Hasadim sponsored a book sale and Lia and I went there looking for [...]
Codex has posted his fifth (!) installment from his Going Potty series. The most recent post is about a newly discovered latrine at Qumran.
These past few weeks I have been spending quite a bit of time learning Genesis Rabbah and I just wanted to write a little bit about two midrashim on this week’s parashah which caught my eye. The first midrash describes part of Abraham’s arguing with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah.
“R. Judah b. [...]
You are currently browsing the Menachem Mendel blog archives for November, 2006.