This Shabbat our synagogue hosted a shabbaton from Yeshivat Hadar. Yeshivat Hadar is one of the more exciting things that is happening in the world of Torah study these days. They have an extensive number of source sheets and podcasts of classes posted online. They just received a large matching grant, which means that for [...]
In today’s issue of Mekor Rishon there is an article describing a large women’s prayer service for the fast of the 17th of Tammuz. What I found interesting about the article was that it presented a different model of women’s religious leadership than is familiar to many liberal religious Jews. The organizer of the event, [...]
I stumbled upon a very nice website which seems to be an attempt at Talmud Study 2.0, Pshita. It includes lots of different material such as links to on-line texts, a dictionary, selections from books and articles, etc. Make sure that you take a look at this alternative graphic presentation of a chapter of Talmud [...]
The Hartman Institute Blog has posted a video of the lecture “Role of Religion in the Public Space, Israeli and American Perspectives.” The two lecturers are William Galston (American perspective) and Ruth Gavison (Israeli perspective). I am listening to it now and so far it is very interesting to listen to these two different perspectives. [...]
(Via Freakonomics.) Corruption = Officials + Pockets: “Nepal’s prime minister was upset that officials at the country’s main airport had gained a reputation for bribe-taking. So the government is trying to put an end to corruption by putting an end to pockets, issuing pocket-less trousers to all its airport staff.” The rabbis of the Mishnah [...]
The important scholar of Early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism Martin Hengel has passed away. (hat tip) From the standpoint of scholarship about Judaism, Hengel was well-known for his book Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine During the Early Hellenistic Period. A short discussion of his views can be found here. Here [...]
On Thursday evening in Park Hayarkon, Israel will celebrate the life and work of Arik Einstein on his seventieth birthday. Einstein is one of the most influential figures in the history of Israeli music and entertainment. Read this account of seeing him play in 1970 and this informative post with some funny clips from his [...]
One of the great features of Israeli radio is האוניברסיטה המשודרת, The Broadcast University, which broadcasts lectures on numerous topics on Galei Tzahal, Israel Army Radio. Usually these lectures are published as books which serve as very good introductions. They have just finished a series by Dr. Thamar E. Gindin on Early Persian Culture. The [...]
Ynet has an article which questions whether people should continue fasting on the tenth of Tevet, the seventeenth of Tamuz (just around the corner), and Tzom Gedaliah. By the number of comments, the writer seems to have touched upon a raw nerve (or an empty stomach). Also see this previous post in which I discussed [...]
For over one hundred years scholars have been arguing about the different recensions of the Geonic work Halakhot Gedolot. Robert Brody described the problematic textual situation. The textual situation is very complicated and has yet to be explored in the requisite depth. The only version available for several centuries was the editio princeps (Venice 1548), [...]
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