Menachem Mendel

See Mitchell First’s post at the Seforim blog on “The Origin of Ta’anit Esther.”

Posted on March 4th, 2011 under Customs, Halakhic Literature, Jewish Law, Purim. Comments Off

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 [...]

Posted on December 14th, 2010 under Customs, Hebrew Literature, History, Israel, Jewish Law. Comments: 1

In Ynet (Hebrew) Kobi Naḥshoni has a review of sorts of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef’s third and final volume on the laws of mourning, Ḥazon Ovadiah al Aveilut. I only have the first volume, so I wasn’t able to look up the decisions that Naḥshoni mentions. One of them was the custom of comforting mourners on [...]

Posted on November 18th, 2010 under Customs, Israel, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature. Comments: 1

Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber recently gave a talk in Baltimore and here are some highlights from a report on the talk. The Orthodox world has dealt with the “uncertainty” and “perplexity” brought on by these changes in two ways, Sperber says. One is to “retreat behind the walls,” condemning all change as a threat to [...]

Posted on November 10th, 2010 under Customs, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority. Comments: 2

This article (Hebrew) brings a few customs that were observed by some communities on Tisha b’Av. Among them are the following: 1. The Torah scroll would be put on the back of a person who would be sitting on their knees. (Birkhei Yosef 559:76) 2. In Yemen, ashes would be put on the Torah scroll. [...]

Posted on July 20th, 2010 under Customs. Comments Off

In this interesting responsum, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow explained why he didn’t tear his garment upon Rav Amital’s z”l death. Rabbi Cherlow was asked the following question. Upon receiving an email last Friday about the death of Our Teacher Rav Amital zt”l, I rent my shirt (on the basis of my feeling and according to what [...]

Posted on July 15th, 2010 under Customs, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority. Comments: 2

For a humorous take on customs associated with Yom ha-Atzmaut, see this article (Hebrew) by Gil Slovik. Here are two of them. זריזין מקדימין למצוות, ועל כן נהגו הרשויות להתחיל לתלות דגלים ברחובה של עיר שלושים יום קודם החג. פתח רבנו תם ואמר: ראו מה נאים מעשיה של רשות זו, שתולה דגלים בכל שדרה ועל [...]

Posted on April 18th, 2010 under Customs, Israel. Comments Off

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews have been witnesses to the formative period of a liturgical response to this momentous event. This process is continuing to this very day, and may continue for years to come. The many different liturgical responses that have been composed are reflective of different religious, cultural, and [...]

Posted on April 15th, 2010 under Customs, Israel, Liturgy, Yom ha-Atzmaut. Comments: 16

On the Main Line has posted some very interesting sources about the way in which some Jewish travelers ate kosher food on their journeys. I would add the following from this exhibit (see under “Jews and the Liquor Trade”), By the end of the eighteenth century about 80 percent of rural Jews in Poland-Lithuania were [...]

Posted on February 4th, 2010 under Customs, Halakhic Literature, Jewish History, Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Kashrut, Rabbinic Authority. Comments Off