Haaretz has a highly recommended interview with Joseph Dan. (hat tip) Dan is currently working on a multi-volume history called “Toledot Torat Hasod Ha’ivrit” (“History of Jewish Mysticism and Esotericism,” Zalman Shazar Center, Jerusalem). Here are some interesting comments of his on the title. The overall title of the work reflects some of the very [...]
“The ‘Girona Genizah’—A Mine of Texts and Historical Documents for the History of Catalan Jews of the Fourteenth Century” Speaker: Professor Mauro Perani, University of Bologna (Ravenna, Italy). The event is taking place on Thursday, October 30, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Mendelson Convocation Center.
Now available, Additions and Corrections to: Michael Sokoloff. 2002. A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods. Found with the help of ETANA.
In the New York Review of Books, Harold Bloom has written a review of Max Weinreich’s History of the Yiddish Language. If assimilation is defined as a minority’s adoption of the customs, values, and habits of the majority, then American Jews are leagues beyond mere absorption into the cultural diffuseness of their country. I can [...]
Last year I posted about Nebraskan State Sen. Ernie Chambers who decided to try and make a point by suing God, State Sen. Ernie Chambers is suing God. He said on Monday that it is to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits. Chambers said senators periodically have offered bills prohibiting the filing of certain types [...]
In Haaretz Yair Sheleg reviews a new book about R. Yehudah Amital. Unlike so many rabbis and yeshiva heads, Amital explicitly discourages his students from following in his footsteps. Students frequently pepper him with questions unrelated to issues of Jewish law, and he always responds, gently but firmly, that they should think out the matter [...]
A new article from Time has been making its way around the blogosphere, but for those who haven’t seen it yet, here is an excerpt, The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do? Would the current financial crisis have been avoided if traders followed Jewish traditions embodied in the Bible and the Talmud? Two scholars [...]
From across the pond, (hat tip) England – Kellogg’s has apologised to a Jewish man who ate a cereal bar containing pork gelatine because its wrapper incorrectly stated it was suitable for vegetarians. Oberon Gardner and his family bought the Rice Krispies Squares bars at a supermarket in Colchester, Essex. Labels on 5,000 multipacks carried [...]
The Economist has an article on the Artscroll Talmud. For Orthodox Jews, lifelong study of the Talmud is the supreme religious precept. But for many earnest students through the ages, it has been a frustrating grind. Written in Aramaic (often described as the language of Jesus), it does not easily surrender its textual meaning or [...]
In an article about Rosh ha-Shannah and Yom Kippur, R. David Hartman writes, The call to teshuva, therefore, is expressed not only in the plea to God for forgiveness and in the affirmation of God’s gracious love and reluctance to mete out punishment and retribution, but also, and most poignantly, in the repeated attempts at [...]
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