Recently, a book was written by Maria Balinska with the title, The Bagel: A Cultural History. There is a review of it by Joan Nathan at Slate. (hat tip) She writes,
Polish-born and half-Jewish, Balinska, who works at the BBC in London, tells us that the boiled and baked bagel as we know it [...]
There have been a number of recent posts which discuss questions of Torah reading cantillation, טעמי המקרא, and Hebrew grammar, specifically the question of whether a word is accented on the ultimate syllable (מלרע), or on the penultimate (second before last) syllable (מלעיל). See this post by Lion of Zion, and this one by [...]
See this article from Ynet about the refusal of a hevra kadisha (burial society) in Israel to allow a family to bury someone in a coffin. (hat tip) For a discussion of the issue, see this responsum (in Hebrew). See here for some scholarly discussion regarding burial practices in antiquity in the Land [...]
R. Alan Yuter has a few critical words here about Artscroll’s, or at least the book which they published, take on tashlich.
The political significance of Feuer’s Judaism is to infantilize Jewry into an obedient and uncritical mass whose world is hopelessly enchanted and frightful. The right reverend rabbis who possess both Daas Torah and Book [...]
See this very interesting post by Bency Eichorn at Seforim about the custom of using a segulah (divination?) to find a person who has drowned.
I have written before about R. Ovadiah Yosef’s attitude towards different customs, and this recently published book looks like it will be an interesting addition to the literature on the subject.
See another example of Eliezer Brodt’s comprehensive treatment of a topic, this one on “Purim and Parodies”, at Seforim.
Just in case you were wondering, nobody has discovered a “Targum Eliezer”. What I have in mind is the Targum of Eliezer’s mission to find a wife for Isaac in Gen. 24. Most Ashkenazi Jews are unaware that for many Jews from North Africa and the Middle East, there is a custom [...]
The question is raised a number of times by the Tosafot as to whether one recites a blessing on an act which is a observed out of custom, and not a legal obligation (see Tosafot Sukkah 44b s.v. kon be-mikdash kon be-gevulin; Taanit 28b s.v. amar shema mina minhag avoteihem be-yedeihem; Berachot 14a s.v. yamim [...]
In Menachem ha-Meiri’s book Magen Avot no. 24 (see also his Hibbur ha-Teshuvah ma’amar 2, chap. 7), he discusses the custom of whether one recites Avinu Malkeinu on Shabbat. While discussing the recitation of Avinu Malkeinu on Shabbat, the Meiri writes the following,
וכן התענית שנאסרו בכל יום טוב, נהגו הרבה מן הגאונים והחסידים להתענות [...]
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