The Segulah of Kiddush Levanah
By: Eliezer Brodt
The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming article of mine on when to say Kiddush Levanah. This is particularly timely, as this it deals with the segulah attributed to this tefiilah, and its possible connection to plagues.
סגולת ברכת הלבנה1
בתחילת המאמר הבאתי דברי המגן אברהם בשם מגיד מישרים: “כ‘ המגיד, כשמקדשין הלבנה במוציא שבת תהיה … Read More...
Towards a Bibliography of Coronavirus-related Articles & Seforim written in the past month (updated)
Black Weddings and others Segulot
By Eliezer Brodt
Introduction
When the lockdown began in Israel a few weeks ago, a friend of mine e-mailed me an article about plagues he was about to complete, asking if I had anything to add. Upon checking my collections of material, I found I had nothing special marked down in … Read More...
On the Passing of Yeshayahu Vinograd, the Bibliographer and the Man
Moshe Dovid Chechik
… Read More...Yeshayahu Vinograd (1933–2020), the renowned scholar and bibliographer, passed away on Thursday, 7 May 2020. He authored Otzar ha-Sefer ha-‘Ivri (Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book), Otzar Sifrei ha-Gra (Thesaurus of the Books of the Vilna Gaon), and (published) Siddur Ezor Eliyahu. The following reminiscences were written by Moshe Dovid Chechik at the request of
The Lost Library, Missing Manuscripts, Saul Lieberman, and More
Marc B. Shapiro
When I finished my new post, it ended up being so long that I had to split it into five parts. Here is part 1.
1 All of us are able to benefit from the Seforim Blog because of the efforts of Dan Rabinowitz, who founded the blog almost fifteen years ago. In the early days, there … Read More...
The Ḥafetz Ḥayyim’s Statement on Teaching Torah to Girls in Likutei Halakhot: Literary and Historical Context
Rachel Manekin and Charles (Bezalel) Manekin
Rachel Manekin is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland.
Charles (Bezalel) Manekin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland.
The authors live in Jerusalem, Israel.
Dedicated to the memory of our mothers, Matel Becher ע”ה and Dorothy Manekin ע”ה
R. Israel … Read More...
An “Artscroll” 
Illustration in the Vilna Shas–Masechet Shabbat 98b
By Eli Genauer
לזכר נשמת אבי מורי ר׳ יעקב קאפל בר׳ משה יהודה הלוי גענויער ז״ל. היארצייט שלו י״ד סיון.
For those studying Daf Yomi this week, there is a unique diagram that appears on Shabbat 98b. In the Vilna Shas one can see a closeup “picture” of one of the boards of the Mishkan (“קרש… Read More...
In Memoriam: Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm z”l
by David Berger
In the early modern period, we find reference in the works of Jews in the Islamic orbit to the ideal of a hakham shalem—expert in both Torah and the various forms of wisdom. If we wish to be yet more ambitious, we can imagine an individual who supplements these already daunting characteristics with a constellation of exceptional personal qualities.… Read More...
Pets on Shabbat, Rabbi Morenu, and Epidemics
Marc B. Shapiro
1. In my last post here I wrote as follows:
… Read More...R. Yitzhak Nahman Eshkoli calls attention to what he sees as another mistake made by those who published R. Moshe Feinstein’s works.[1] Here is Iggerot Moshe,Orah Hayyim 5, 22:21.
According to the text of R. Moshe’s responsum, animals are muktzeh, even those that children play with. This means
Summer 2020 Sale Announcement: Eight New (or newish) book recommendations
By Eliezer Brodt
Normally this time of the year I post to announce book week and to list out many of the seforim and books printed during the year. This year, due to Covid-19, there is no book fair. At this time there is “talk” of holding a fair in a few months, but who knows what the future will … Read More...
Post-Mosaic Additions to the Torah?
Marc B. Shapiro
In his post here, Ben Zion Katz deals with medieval rabbinic views regarding post-Mosaic additions to the Torah. Katz refers to The Limits of Orthodox Theology, and I have mentioned many additional sources in Seforim Blog posts. (A couple of people have commented that in a few recent publications on this topic it seems that the authors used my writings
‘Yikar Sahaduta Dipum Bidatta’
R. Tzvi Hirsch Levin, the Besamim Rosh and the Chida
Rabbi Moshe Maimon, Jackson NJ
Some of the worst epidemics we have known in our history have indirectly been the catalyst for important contributions by scholars who produced their valuable works under quarantine. Eliezer Brodt has published in these pages considerable lists of such scholarship, from bygone plagues down to the current terrible epidemic, which … Read More...
JEWISH TREASURES FROM OXFORD LIBRARIES
By Paul Shaviv
Ed. Rebecca Abrams and Cesar Merchan-Hamann / Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 2020 / ISBN 978 1 85124 502 4 / Available in the USA via Amazon $55
307pp, 140 full-colour plates
Oxford,[1] the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’, is one of the world’s greatest repositories of Hebraica and Judaica, both books and manuscripts.
This sumptuous volume was initiated at the encouragement and … Read More...
The Fundraising Campaign to Print
the Letters of Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi (1922-2020)
By Eliezer Brodt
Over Shabbos one of the hidden giants of the seforim world, both within ultra-orthodox and academic circles, was niftar; a man known as Rabbi Shmuel Askenazi. He was 98 and lived in Batei Ungarin in Meah Shearim.
(seen here with Rav Yechiel Goldhaber)
R. Ashkenazi authored many books and hundreds of articles in dozens of … Read More...
In Praise of Ephemera:
A Picture Postcard from Vilna Reveals its Secrets
More than One Hundred Years after its Original Publication*
by Shnayer Leiman
I belong to a small group of inveterate collectors of Jewish ephemera. We collect artifacts that many others consider of little or no significance, such as postage stamps; coins and medallions; old posters, broadsides, and newspaper clippings; outdated New Years cards; wine-stained Passover Haggadot; Jewish ornaments,
Response to Criticism, Part 3
Marc B. Shapiro
Continued from here.
Let me continue with Rabbi Herschel Grossman’s review. [1] This post will complete my response to around a quarter of his review, so we still have a long way to go.
Grossman writes (p. 42)
… Read More...According to Shapiro, “Maimonides would be surprised that . . . later generations of Jews . . . latched onto his earlier work;”
R. Ahron Soloveichik: “In Defense of My Brother”
Marc B. Shapiro
In his recent post here Professor Shnayer Leiman showed how almost magically, things from the past, thought to be lost, can be brought back to life as it were. I recently had the same experience. In my Torah in Motion class a couple of weeks ago (see here) I was discussing the Jewish Observer “eulogy” for R. Joseph … Read More...
“Did The Bach Really Draw a Cow?” Eruvin 20 b – Hagahot HaBach on Rashi “הא אתמר עלה”
Eli Genauer
Summary
The diagram in the first edition of the Bach (1824) is much more accurate than how it is depicted in later editions, especially the Vilna Shas. The Bach’s picture features a long feeding trough, (an אבוס), whereas Vilna and others show it looking more like something … Read More...
Book Announcement: Volume Five of Amudim beToldot haSefer haIvri
By Eliezer Brodt
I am very happy to announce the recent publication (and Sale) of an important work, which will be of great interest to readers of the Seforim Blog, the fifth volume of, Amudim be-Toldot ha-Sefer ha-Ivri by Professor Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, of Bar-Ilan University’s Talmud department.
As I have written in the past, Professor Spiegel is one … Read More...
Legacy Auctions: Romm Press, Haggadah Art, Controversial Books, and other Bibliographical Historica
Legacy Judaica’s fall auction is next week, September 13, and we wanted to highlight some bibliographical historica. Lot 95 is Elbona shel Torah, (Berlin, 1929), by R. Shmuel Shraga Feigneshon, known as Safan ha-Sofer. He helmed the operations of the Romm Press in Vilna. During his 55-year tenure, he oversaw the publication of the monumental Vilna Shas, … Read More...
