In Haaretz there is a review of Haym Soloveitchik’s new book Ha-Yayin Bimei Ha-Beinayim, Soloveitchik’s book is a study of the subject of yayin nesekh (or “idolatrous wine,” that is, wine that has been touched by gentiles and is therefore forbidden to Jews) as it affected the day-to-day lives of medieval German Jewry. In the [...]
In the Middle has some comments on Eric Lawee’s article, “The Reception of Rashi’s Commentary on the Torah In Spain: The Case of Adam’s Mating with the Animals,” Jewish Quarterly Review 97.1 (2007): 33-66. See here for Hirhurim’s summary of some of the article.
The Yeshiva University Museum has an exhibit of treasures from Erfurt, Germany. (hat tip) The Yeshiva University Museum provides the only North American venue for an unusually significant exhibition of Medieval gold and silver jewelry, tableware, and rare coins discovered just a decade ago concealed within the foundation of a 12th-century house in Erfurt, Germany, [...]
Yehudah D. Galinsky has an article in the new JQR, 98/3, Summer 2008, “On Popular Halakhic Literature and the Jewish Reading Audience in Fourteenth-Century Spain.” From the abstract, The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was not an auspicious period for the Jews of Europe. In contrast, the Jewish communities of Christian Spain seem to have been [...]
At Hirhurim Gil has two recent posts on the issue of talking during shul. I just came across two related sources which illustrate how this problem is not new at all. The first source is from a Yiddish poem written around 1675. in the synagogue they can’t keep their mouths shut; one talks of his [...]
Rabbi Jeffrey Hoffman was kind enough to send me a copy of an article of his which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the JQR. The article is on Akdamut, the Aramaic poem which is recited before the Torah reading on Shavuot. Below are some of his comments, and I also recommend reading [...]
There was a recent article in the Jewish Week about Sherwood Goffin, the cantor of the Lincoln Square Synagogue. Goffin was lamenting the current state of leading prayer services and what may be termed the over-Carlbachization of prayer services. He is upset that many people lead services and have no idea about what is the [...]
I started to think more about la’azim (“glosses”), and I did some quick searching in the catalogue of the IMHM and found a few mss. which have la’azim in numerous languages. Here are some commentaries on the Tanakh that contain la’azim. 1. Italy, 15-16th century-glosses in Italian. 2. Italy, 16th century-glosses in Italian. 3. Ashkenaz, [...]
As a result of a conversation with a few people in the library, a few questions were raised about languages relating to Rashi. It is well-known that Rashi in his commentaries to the Tanakh and Talmud brings over two thousand translations, la’azim, of Hebrew and Aramaic words, using them to explain difficult words and phrases. [...]
In the late middle ages and early modern period, a very popular remedy for illness was human flesh, or at least medicine derived from human flesh. “Medicinal cannibalism” was practiced throughout Europe and parts of the Middle East. Some of this human flesh came from mummies that were found in places such as Egypt, while [...]
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