Menachem Mendel

Posted on December 5th, 2011 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations. Comments Off

Ruth Langer’s book on Birkat HaMinim, Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim has just been published. From the preview on Google Books it looks like an informative read. For a discussion of this blessing in an earlier historical context, see Yaakov Teppler’s Birkat haMinim: Jews and Christians in Conflict in the Ancient [...]

Posted on November 29th, 2011 under Blessings, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Liturgy, Synagogue. Comments Off

John Hobbins has an insightful review into the recently released book, The Jewish Annotated New Testament. John writes: The Jewish Annotated New Testament, hereafter JANT in this review, is meant to meet the needs of discrete (and occasionally overlapping) sets of readers: (1) Jews, (2) Christians, and (3) readers who approach the New Testament without [...]

Posted on November 28th, 2011 under Jewish-Gentile Relations, New Books. Comments Off

The beginning of tractate Bechorot has some interesting discussion about relations between Jews and Gentiles. The following statement is found on Bechorot 2b: והא אמר אבוה דשמואל: אסור לאדם שיעשה שותפות עם הגוי, שמא יתחייב לו שבועה, ונשבע לו בשם עבודת כוכבים שלו, והתורה אמרה: (שמות כג) לא ישמע על פיך! Has not the father [...]

Posted on November 17th, 2011 under Daf Yomi, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Talmud, Talmud Study. Comments Off

The conference at Haifa University on the book Torat ha-Melekh has been cancelled after protests from numerous quarters over the author being invited to speak. (hat tip)

Posted on August 31st, 2011 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Public Events, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Religion in Israel, Religious Zionism. Comments: 4

Tomer Persico has posted about a conference next week at Haifa University on the book Torat ha-Melekh.

Posted on August 28th, 2011 under Jewish Law, Jewish Thought, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Religion in Israel, Religious Zionism. Comments Off

On Ḥullin 10a it is written that physical dangers are taken more seriously than ritual prohibitions, חמירא סכנתא מאיסורא. This phrase has been used in two different manners. The first is to speak about the importance of avoiding dangerous situations in general, while the second specifically addresses the tension between ritual prohibitions and the possibility [...]

Posted on July 6th, 2011 under Daf Yomi, Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Talmud. Comments Off

For those who haven’t been paying attention during the last few months, lots of Jews have been interested in the interest found in South Korea of certain Talmudic teachings. My original post on the subject can be found here. It seems that the story has continued to develop in different ways, and the South Korean [...]

Posted on July 5th, 2011 under Jewish-Gentile Relations, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud, Talmud Study. Comments Off

Hillel Gershuni has posted some thoughtful comments (Hebrew) about the book Torat ha-Melekh. Hillel’s main points are that the book in no way calls for individuals to take the law into their own hands, it even emphasizes the need for the state to be the sole arbiter of power and force. Additionally, there is nothing [...]

Posted on July 4th, 2011 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Religious Zionism. Comments Off