Over the holiday I saw an advertisement for a Syrian synagogue, Magen David of Union Square, that described minḥa before Yom Kippur as being “with tefillin.” I had never heard of this custom before and a little searching found some discussion of this custom. In the always helpful Keter Shem Tov I found the following: [...]
Below is a source sheet from a shiur that I’ll be teaching at tonight’s Tikkun. Hag Sameaḥ. Competing Communities
In the Shavuot edition of Musaf Shabbat, Yoel Rappel discusses (Hebrew) a few customs that are observed on Shavuot.
With Shavuot almost upon us, it is worthwhile to read this summary by Ethan Tucker of the sources about the question when one should pray on Shavuot evening.
Reading for Jerusalem Day: David Golinkin, “Jerusalem in Jewish law and Custom: A Preliminary Typology” (here) An expanded version of this article can be found in Lee Levine, ed., Jerusalem: its Centrality to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Continuum Press, New York, 1999, pp. 408-423.
Ynet has an article (Hebrew) about a new custom from the Movement for Progressive Judaism (Reform) in Israel, chanting selections from Israel’s Declaration of Independence (English, Hebrew) on Yom ha-Atzmaut with cantillation. You can hear a few selections here. It’s too bad that the section of their web site about Yom ha-Atzmaut there doesn’t seem [...]
According to this (Hebrew) article from Musaf Shabbat by Rabbi Prof. Neriyah Gotel, Rav Kook was an enthusiastic consumer of machine-made Manischewitz matzah while he was in London during WW I. The article describes the different versions of a letter by Rav Kook that were published in different editions of Igrot Ha-Ra’ayah, one that includes [...]
Rabbi Hayyim Navon has published a new book on halakhah and the Jewish woman. Navon tries to be responsive to calls for halakhic change, but he doesn’t give much. If despite his discomfort with the blessing שלא עשני אשה he keeps saying it because he thinks that we need some central halakhic authority to change [...]
See Mitchell First’s post at the Seforim blog on “The Origin of Ta’anit Esther.”
The fast of Asarah be-Tevet is this Friday. See here for a post about how to observe the fast when it falls on a Friday. For a more in-depth discussion of the origins of the fast and some of its halakhic issues, see this post from Mechon Hadar. In this post, Uri Heitner describes the [...]
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