Menachem Mendel

The inaugural issue of Oqimta is now available online. Oqimta is a digitized research journal devoted to all spheres and types of talmudic and rabbinical literature – in Jewish law and exegesis.

Posted on April 28th, 2013 under New Articles, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud, Tannaitic Literature. Comments Off

In response to a motion of no confidence, Ruth Calderon teaches some Mishnah from the Knesset podium. (HT)

Posted on April 22nd, 2013 under Israeli Politics, Rabbinic Literature. Comments: 2

Below is a video of MK Ruth Calderon’s recent talk at JTS. (HT to Yossi Hoffman on Twitter)

Posted on April 16th, 2013 under Rabbinic Literature, Religion in Israel, Talmud Study, Zionism. Comments Off

Makor Rishon’s Musaf Shabbat has a very interesting interview (Hebrew) with Daniel Sperber. Much of the interview discusses Judaism’s attitude toward Eastern religions and a recent book by Sperber that discusses this question. It also includes Sperber describing his days in Yeshivat Hebron and his own backpacking trip to India.

Posted on April 5th, 2013 under Musaf Shabbat, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature. Comments Off

From the THE BLOG OF THE CENTER FOR JEWISH LAW Review of Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Demonic Desires: ‘Yetzer Hara’ and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. 264 pages. $69.95 By Jason Rubenstein jasonbassirubenstein-at-gmail.com Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s Demonic Desires: ‘Yetzer Hara’ and the Problem of Evil in Late Antiquity is an [...]

Posted on April 4th, 2013 under Ancient Judaism, Book Reviews, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud, Tannaitic Literature. Comments Off

Often opponents of halakhic innovation or change claim that their opposition is based upon the legal sources and that external factors such as human emotion are irrelevant to halakhic decision making. Last week Musaf Shabbat of Makor Rishon published an article (Hebrew) on the tenth yarzheit of Rabbi Shalom Messas, the former Chief Rabbi of [...]

Posted on March 22nd, 2013 under Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Sepharad. Comments Off

There is a new blog that will be addressing issues related to Judaism in general and Jewish Law specifically. The blog, לאן הולכים מכאן, is in Hebrew and here a short description by בעל הבלוג. (HT) בשמחה, בתקווה ובחשש אני חונך את הבלוג הזה, שיעסוק בהלכה וגם ביהדות בכלל, באתגרים העומדים בפניהם בעולם המודרני, בכיוונים [...]

Posted on March 15th, 2013 under Blogroll, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Literature. Comments Off

Haym Soloveitchik reviewed Talia Fishman’s book Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures in the Jewish Review of Books. Fishman’s response and Soloveitchik’s rejoinder can be found here. See a more detailed rejoinder by Soloveitchik here. It ain’t pretty.

Posted on March 13th, 2013 under Book Reviews, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud, Talmud Study. Comments: 6

This video has some interesting footage and photos from the life of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. For Maranologists, at 30 seconds there seems to be footage for a pocket version of his responsa Yabia Omer. Maybe this was the first printing.

Posted on March 1st, 2013 under Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Religion in Israel. Comments Off