H-Judaic has a review of Uriel I. Simonsohn’s A Common Justice: The Legal Allegiances of Christians and Jews under Early Islam. In the year 1030 CE, Shelomo ben Yehuda, the Palestinian gaon (medieval Jewish religious authority), wrote a letter lamenting the impossible position he and his fellow leaders were in. As someone charged with upholding [...]
Zvi Zohar has published a book about Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Ḥai Uziel’s approach to conversion. If you are interested in purchasing the book, you can contact Judaica Book Centre in Jerusalem: info-at-jbcbooks.com.
In addition to the article by Gail Labovitz that I posted about here, the new issue of Nashim has two other interesting articles. (hat tip) Ilan Fuchs, Hair Covering for Single Women: A New Reading of Mizraḥi Halakhic Rulings (here) A central feature in the lives of observant Jewish women is hair covering. Head covering [...]
Have you ever wondered what the word אשטרינג”ה means? If so, read this very useful article that lists all of the Ladino words in the Shulḥan Arukh with translations, אליעזר פאפו, אוצר המלים השאולות מלאדינו בשולחן ערוך. If you were wondering, אשטרינג”ה is from the Ladino word estringra and it is a thread or string [...]
Ezra Chwat of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts has posted at Giluy Milta B’alma about the conclusions of research into the manuscripts of Hilchot ha-Rif that were done in preparation for a new edition that will be published by Maor in their edition of the Talmud. To be blunt, and possible extreme in the [...]
I just finished reading Mark Mazower‘s book Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 and recommend it for anyone who is interested in reading about the history of the Jewish community of Salonica or the rise and fall of multi-ethnic communities. The following is from a section describing anti-Jewish attacks that occurred in [...]
The Rambam Library, Sifriyat ha-Rambam, is an important Judaica library that is located at Beit Ariella in Tel Aviv. The director of the library has a very nice blog, Im ha-Sefer, (Hebrew) that has posts about some of the many gems that are found in the library’s collection. He recently posted about some books that [...]
AIWAC has posted a translation of an op-ed by Dr. Ariel Picard on Sephardic moderation. Rav Ovadia is Haredi in that he sees modernity as the enemy. He does indeed come from a tradition of moderation, and therefore his halahic rulings are more moderate, but it is important to be careful and avoid confusing halachic [...]
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