Michael Fishbane has recently published a new book on Jewish theology, Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology, and will be speaking in April at JTS. Dr. Michael Fishbane, Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago, and Professor Arnold M. Eisen, Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), will discuss “Attuning to the [...]
Biblia Hebraica has a very enthusiastic review of Bernard M. Levinson’s Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press, 2008. For sale by Amazon. This just might be the best book I’ve read in a long time. It’s challenged my assumptions about the development of the Hebrew Bible and the role of [...]
Here are a few interesting books and dissertations recently catalogued at the JNUL. 1. הלכות חכמים שבטל טעמן בפסיקת הדורות האחרונים / מאת רפאל עציון. (diss., here) 2. דרכי פסיקתו על הראש”ל הרב בן-ציון מאיר חי עזיאל בסוגיות בדיני משפחה / מאת נעמה סט. (diss., here) 3. מהדורה מדעית עם פירוש על דרך המחקר לפרק [...]
Shmuel Rosner discusses importing the American-style synagogue to Israel with R. Ronen Neuwirth of Tzohar. ————- Q: Isn’t the role of the rabbi in the US and Israel completely different? How can you draw on experience from the US and teach Israelis? A: There is a common misconception among Israelis that the role of the [...]
My Djerban-born friend Yael G. introduced my family to a custom observed on Rosh Hodesh Nissan by Jews from Libya and Tunisia. The custom is called פשישה/בסיסה. See here and here. There are three reasons given for this custom: 1. According to Megillat Ta’anit, from Rosh Hodesh Nisan until the eighth of the month the [...]
PB from the Mofet: Jewish Teacher Education Community (JTEC) alerted me to both their website and their web portal. For Jewish educators these look like very useful resources.
Just a few things that I noticed on www.archive.org. 1. Moshe Segal, Misnaic Hebrew and its relation to Biblical Hebrew and to Aramaic, a grammatical study (1909) 2. Charles Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers : comprising Pirqe Aboth and Pereq R. Meir in Hebrew and English, with critical and illustrative notes and specimen pages [...]
Drew Kaplan has an interesting post on modern orthodoxy and the ordination of women rabbis. Also see the insightful post here at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. For me the ordination of women as rabbis was decided long ago in favor, but it is interesting to see how others struggle with the issue. My son’s wonderful Talmud [...]
The Schechter Haggadah (see more here) is reviewed in Ynet News. (hat tip) I recently received my copy and I don’t hesitate to say that it is a beautiful and very informative haggadah which will enrich anyone’s seder. To order you can download the form from here and email it to atalia@schechter.ac.il or fax to [...]
R. Shelomo Toledono (his dissertation on R. Betzalel Ashkenazi is available to download from here) has authored a number of books and articles which discuss the difference in customs among Sepharadim and their relationship to R. Yosef Karo. Much of his work is devoted to defending the customs from North Africa against R. Ovadiah Yosef’s [...]
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