There is a statement found in the Babylonian Talmud which has always interested me תני רב יוסף: שארה – זו קרוב בשר שלא ינהג בה מנהג פרסיים, שמשמשין מטותיהן בלבושיהן. מסייע ליה לרב הונא: האומר אי אפשי אלא אני בבגדי והיא בבגדה יוציא ונותן כתובה R. Yosef recited [the following tannaitic text]: “Her flesh” (Exodus [...]
I wasn’t planning to post on Noah Feldman’s article in the NY Times, so I am going to respond to one of his responders. Jeff Woolf at My Obiter Dicta brings a response by R. Shalom Carmy regarding one of Feldman’s comments, that of violating the Shabbat in order to save the live of a [...]
If you are looking for some reading for Tisha B’Av, one can look over Christian M.M. Brady’s (also see his blog Targuman) dissertation, “Targum Lamentations’ Reading of the Book of Lamentations.”
On my post on the use of underwear for paper-making, someone commented that, I can think of many books today that would have been put to better use had they been converted to underwear. While not using the same words, this description of the worthiness of certain books reminded me of an approbation (הסכמה) written [...]
Not being the biggest fan of the Harry Potter books, I have enjoyed the movies, I am having quite the time observing from the sidelines all the latest about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Iyov has linked to many of the attempts at derashing Harry Potter, but you knew that there [...]
John Hobbins at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has written some very interesting posts on the need for stronger language skills for theological students. His post has resulted in a number of interesting responses. As someone who has taught rabbinical, graduate, and non-degree (לשמה) students, it is clear that language is a huge problem for many, if [...]
Thanks a post at Codex, upon which I hope to comment later, I have come upon an excellent new blog, Iyov. In a little over two months there have been a large number of very interesting posts. Welcome to the blogosphere and keep up the good work.
I know that the title is a bit out of the ordinary, but as we begin the nine days and all of the questions which have been raised about washing certain articles of clothing, consider the following news report from News for Medievalists, Delegates at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds, northern [...]
Steven M. Lowenstein, previously mentioned in this post, has examined the Synagogue Regulations, Synagogenordnungen, of the early Reform Movement in 19th century Germany. He has compared collections of 13 regulations from different synagogues, spanning the years 1810-1848. Lowenstein writes that, A study of the concrete innovations introduced into German-Jewish communities during the 1840′s and earlier [...]
Probably everyone who has some interest in the Golem of Prague is familiar with Prof. Shnayer Z. Leiman’s article “The Adventure of the Maharal of Prague in London: R. Yudl Rosenberg and the Golem of Prague”. For those who want to read about R. Yudl Rosenberg even more, Curt Leviant has recently published a translation [...]
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