Davka is continuing a sale that they have on their Soncino Talmud for Mac (here) and PC (here). I received my copy for a Mac the other day and I am very happy with it. It includes a nice interface and allows parallel scrolling between the Talmud, Rashi, Soncino, etc. I don’t know much about [...]
Sharon Flatto’s The Kabbalistic Culture of Eighteenth-century Prague: Ezekiel Landau And His Contemporaries has just been published. From the promo: Sharon Flatto’s comprehensive study offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague and the first critical account of the life and thought of its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau. Her detailed [...]
I just finished read a very good book on the question of the relationship between literacy and power, specifically when it comes to advanced Jewish learning by woman. The book is Tamar El-Or’s Next Year I Will Know More: Literacy and Identity Among Young Orthodox Women in Israel. I highly recommend this book, or its [...]
The journalist, radio personality, and writer, Jackie Levy, used to review synagogues for the Jerusalem newspaper Kol ha-Ir in his column Sulam Yaakov. It was lots of fun to read and the only column of its kind that I know of. For those people who want to keep up on what people are kibitzing about [...]
The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry is available online. There are a number of interesting articles by such scholars as Moshe Idel, Zvi Zohar, and Morris Fairrstein.
Controversies about popular songs are always interesting. In Israel there is one brewing about a song performed by Amir Benayun, אני אחיך. Benayun talks about it here (Hebrew) and here is some political background in order to understand a bit about the song’s creation. These are the lyrics. “אני אחיך” / מילים ולחן: עמיר בניון [...]
The IP Factor has a report of a seminar on Jewish Law and Music/Film Downloading from the internet. The seminar featured Rabbis Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, Shlomo Dzialowski, and Yitzhak Halevi Clab. All of them pointed out that according to civil law illegal downloads are just that, illegal, so this is enough to prohibit it. From [...]
By chance I stumbled upon an Israel web site that might be of interest. It is called Kotar, not to be confused with Cotar from Bar-Ilan U., and for a subscription fee it offers access to digital copies of many high-quality Israeli books. A list can be found here. Is anybody familiar with it? For [...]
Vos iz Neias brings an AP report about a newly restored MS of the Mishneh Torah which will be displayed at the Israel Museum. Experts at Israel’s national museum have completed the restoration of a 15th-century Hebrew manuscript with exquisite illustrations made by master Italian artisans, officials said Thursday. … The museum has half of [...]
In honor of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz finishing his commentary on the Talmud, November 7, 2010 has been designated a Global Day of Jewish Learning. On that day there will be a big siyyum in Jerusalem along with programs around the world. As a lead up to that day, there is a special series of talks [...]
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