Menachem Mendel

It is taught in mGittin 5:5: הֵעִיד רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן בֶּן גֻּדְגְּדָה עַל הַחֵרֶשֶׁת שֶׁהִשִּׂיאָהּ אָבִיהָ שֶׁהִיא יוֹצְאָה בַגֵּט. וְעַל קְטַנָּה בַת יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁנִּשֵּׂאת לַכֹּהֵן, שֶׁאוֹכֶלֶת בַּתְּרוּמָה. וְאִם מֵתָה, בַּעְלָהּ יוֹרְשָׁהּ. וְעַל הַמָּרִישׁ הַגָּזוּל שֶׁבְּנָאוֹ בַבִּירָה, שֶׁיִּטּוֹל אֶת דָּמָיו, מִפְּנֵי תַקָּנַת הַשָּׁבִים. וְעַל הַחַטָּאת הַגְּזוּלָה שֶׁלֹּא נוֹדְעָה לָרַבִּים, שֶׁהִיא מְכַפֶּרֶת, מִפְּנֵי תִקּוּן הַמִּזְבֵּחַ Testified R. Yohanan [...]

Posted on June 29th, 2012 under Israel, Israeli Politics, Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations. Comments: 4

Yeshivat Maale Gilboa has published a new volume of their journal VeZot LeYehuda. This issue addresses the status of women in Jewish law and the controversy around the marginalization of women (hadarat nashim) emerging from Israeli religious circles. The English edition can be found here and the Hebrew here. These are the articles included in [...]

Posted on June 29th, 2012 under Gender, Halakhic Literature, Jewish Law, New Articles. Comments Off

I have seen a number of interesting discussions as a result of Immanuel Etkes’s review of Benny Brown’s book on the Ḥazon Ish. Etkes’s review is titled, “When rabbis are turned into saints,” giving some idea about one of the important issues that both the book and his review address. Ynet has an article (Hebrew) [...]

Posted on June 28th, 2012 under Israeli Culture, Religion in Israel, Religious Authority, Religious Zionism. Comments Off

In a post about the recent German court case outlawing ritual circumcision, Charles Lane writes the following at the Washington Post: In any case, what this remarkable judge does not grasp — or does not care about — is the fact that a male cannot be a Jew unless circumcised eight days after birth. (A separate [...]

Posted on June 28th, 2012 under Jewish Law. Comments: 8

Yisrael Dubitsky has published an updated version of his Census of Earliest Printed Editions of the Babylonian Talmud: Prints from Incunables through Bomberg. The primary purpose of the following list is to record all early editions of tractates of the Babylonian Talmud known to have been printed, as well as locations (current and some former) [...]

Posted on June 27th, 2012 under Hebrew Printing, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud. Comments Off

Just in case you didn’t already know, the latest from the Iranian Fars News Agency: Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi condemned Zionists for inciting global drug trade and addiction in a bid to annihilate non-Jewish communities in accordance with Talmudic teachings. You don’t say. Addressing a ceremony on the occasion of the International Day [...]

Posted on June 26th, 2012 under Talmud. Comments Off

The Israel Prime Minister’s Office released the following press release: (hat tip) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and Genesis Philanthropy Group founder Mikhail Fridman announced the Genesis Prize, the “Jewish Nobel Prize” – an international prize which will be awarded to Jews who win global recognition due to their achievements in [...]

Posted on June 26th, 2012 under Israel, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Jewish History. Comments Off

Steven H. Resnicoff has posted at SSRN a chapter from his book, Understanding Jewish Law. The chapter is titled “Extraordinary Sources of Jewish Law: the Example of Capital Punishment.” (here) Most Jewish law scholarship, especially that which is published in English, focuses on only one of Jewish law’s criminal law enforcement systems, namely, the operation [...]

Posted on June 24th, 2012 under Jewish Law, Legal History, New Articles, New Books. Comments Off

There is an interview in Haaretz with Susannah Heschel. Among the many things that she speaks about, one is the real story behind the custom of putting an orange on the seder plate. For her part, Heschel the younger has made her political mark in the feminist arena. She is the author of the book [...]

Posted on June 24th, 2012 under Religion. Comments Off