Menachem Mendel

Great news via Hirhurim.
Bnei Banim Online:

The four volumes of R. Yehuda Henkin’s Responsa Bnei Banim are now available on HebrewBooks.org:

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Posted on October 30th, 2008 under Halakhic Literature, Rabbinic Literature, Responsa. Comments: None

[Disclaimer: The following post discusses certain aspects of Jewish law which for some exhibit an attitude towards non-Jews that they may find objectionable, embarrassing, better left undiscussed, or any mutation or variation of the above. Being that my current area of research focuses to some extant on many of these laws that are [...]

Posted on August 15th, 2008 under Jewish-Gentile Relations, Responsa. Comments: 6

With a visit from Pope Benedict the XVI soon upon us, I wanted to point out a reference to a previous Pope in a responsum of the Hatam Sofer. The Hatam Sofer, in a letter to Dr. Tzvi Hirsh Oppenheim of Temesvar written in 1826, responds to a number of changes made in synagogue [...]

Posted on April 15th, 2008 under Jewish-Gentile Relations, Responsa. Comments: 1

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 [...]

Posted on February 12th, 2008 under Jewish Law, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Middle Ages, Responsa, Shabbat, Synagogue. Comments: None

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, [...]

Posted on January 24th, 2008 under Jewish Law, Middle Ages, Responsa. Comments: 3

Once in a while one finds in a responsa a rabbi saying that they have something else to say, but that it is either better left unsaid, not appropriate for here, I don’t want to write more about it, etc. Sometimes it is just because they don’t want to digress from the question at [...]

Posted on December 21st, 2007 under Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority, Responsa. Comments: None

In the early days of this blog I posted on Rabbi Yosef Messas. Since in a post at Seforim Marc B. Shapiro has mentioned R. Messas, I figured that it was time to write about him again. My intention was to write about a responsum of his, which while not about some earth-shattering [...]

Posted on November 13th, 2007 under Responsa. Comments: 2