Re-Connecting the Heart
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
1 Jews, Gentiles, and the Modern Egalitarian Ethos
Jews, Gentiles, and the Modern Egalitarian Ethos: Some Tentative Thoughts David Berger The deep and systemic tension between contemporary egalitarianism and many authoritative Jewish texts about gentiles takes varying forms. Most Orthodox Jews remain untroubled by some aspects of this tension, understanding that Judaism’s affirmation of chosenness and hierarchy can inspire and ennoble without denigrating others. In other instances, affirmations of metaphysical differences between Jews and gentiles can take a form that makes many of us uncomfortable, but we have the legitimate option of regarding them as non-authoritative. Finally and most disturbing, there are positions affirmed by standard halakhic sources from the Talmud to the Shulhan Arukh that apparently stand in stark contrast to values taken for granted in the modern West and taught in other sections of the Torah itself. Let me begin with a few brief observations about the first two categories and proceed to somewhat more extended ruminations about the third. Critics ranging from medieval Christians to Mordecai Kaplan have directed withering fire at the doctrine of the chosenness of Israel. Nonetheless, if we examine an overarching pattern in the earliest chapters of the Torah, we discover, I believe, that this choice emerges in a universalist context. The famous statement in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) that Adam was created singly so that no one would be able to say, “My father is greater than yours” underscores the universality of the original divine intent. While we can never know the purpose of creation, one plausible objective in light of the narrative in Genesis is the opportunity to actualize the values of justice and lovingkindness through the behavior of creatures who subordinate themselves to the will 1 of God. -
Keter Shem Tov: a Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only
Keter Shem Tov: A Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only Keter Shem Tov: A Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only[1] by Marvin J. Heller Entitling, naming books is, a fascinating subject. Why did the author call his book what he/she did? Why that name and not another? Hebrew books frequently have names resounding in meaning, but providing little insight into the contents of the book. This article explores the subject, focusing on one title only, Keter Shem Tov. That book-name is taken from a verse “the crown of a good name (Keter Shem Tov) excels them all (Avot 4:13). The article describes the varied books with that title, unrelated by author or subject, and why the author/publisher selected that title for the book. 1. Simeon said: there are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty; but the crown of a good name (emphasis added, Keter Shem Tov) excels them all (Avot 4:13). “As a pearl atop a crown (keter), so are his good deeds fitting” (Israel Lipschutz, Zera Yisrael, Avot 4:13). Entitling, naming books, remains, is, a fascinating subject. Why did the author call his book what he/she did? Why that name and not another? Hebrew books since the Middle-Ages often have names resounding in meaning, but providing little insight into the contents of the book. A reader looking at the title of a book in another language, more often than not, is immediately aware of the book’s subject matter. -
Introduction of Rabbi Yosef Kapach to His Edition of Moses Maimonides
Introduction of Rabbi Yosef Kapach to his edition of Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (translated by Michael J. Bohnen) Rabbi Kapach was the foremost editor of the works of Maimonides. Born in Yemen in 1917, he used ancient manuscripts to restore the text of the Mishneh Torah. Several fascinating articles about Rabbi Kapach can be found at www.chayas.com/rabbi.htm The following is a summary and translation of his 20 page Introduction to his edition of the Mishneh Torah. Translator’s Summary My Work. When in my youth I studied the Mishneh Torah with my grandfather of blessed memory, most people used printed books, each with his own edition, but my grandfather and several of the others had manuscripts which were several hundred years old, each scroll of a different age. The errors and deficiencies of the printed texts were well known. The changes that Maimonides made over time in the Commentary on the Mishnah, after completing the Mishneh Torah, he then inserted in the Mishnah Torah. These are all found in our manuscripts, but some are not found in the printed texts. The Jews of Yemen are a conservative group. They would never have presumed to "correct" or "amend" a text that came into their hands, and certainly not the works of Maimonides. However, the Mishneh Torah was subjected to severe editing by the printers and various editors who made emendations of style, language, the structure of sentences and the division of halachot, to the extent that there is hardly any halacha that has not been emended. In this edition of ours, we are publishing, with God’s help, the words of Maimonides in full as we received them from his blessed hand. -
Chassidus on the Eh're Chassidus on the Parsha +
LIGHTS OF OUR RIGHTEOUS TZADDIKIM בעזרת ה ' יתבר A Tzaddik, or righteous person , makes everyone else appear righteous before Hashem by advocating for them and finding their merits. Kedushas Levi, Parshas Noach (Bereishis 7:1) RE ’EH _ CHASSIDUS ON THE PARSHA + Dvar Torah The Merit of Charity Compound forms of verbs usually indicate thoroughness. Yet when the Torah tells us (14:22), “You shall fully tithe ( aser te’aser ) all the produce of your field,” our Sages derive another concept. “ Aser bishvil shetis’asher ,” they say. “Tithe in order that you shall become wealthy.” Why is this so? When the charity a person gives, explains Rav Levi Yitzchak, comes up to Heaven, its provenance is scrutinized. Why was this particular amount giv en to charity? Then the relationship to the full amount of the harvest is discovered. There is a ration of ten to one, and the amount given is one tenth of the total. In this way the entire harvest participates in the mitzvah but only in a secondary role. Therefore, if the charity was given with a full heart, the person giving the charity merits that the quality of his donation is elevated. The following year, the entire harvest is elevated from a secondary role to a primary role in the giving of the charit y. The amount of the previous year’s harvest then becomes only one tenth of the new harvest, and the giver becomes wealthy. n Story Unfortunately, there were all too many poor people who circulated among the towns and 1 Re ’eh / [email protected] villages begging for assistance in staving off starvation. -
Apostates and More, Part 2,The History Behind the Ashkenazi
Apostates and More, Part 2 Apostates and More, Part 2 Marc B. Shapiro Continued from here 1. Another apostate was Rabbi Nehemiah ben Jacob ha-Kohen of Ferrara, who was an important supporter of R. Moses Hayyim Luzzatto during the controversy about him.[1]Here is the the final page of the haskamah he wrote in 1729 for R. Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea’s Emunat Hakhamim. R. Isaac Lampronte, in a halakhic discussion in hisPahad Yitzhak, refers to Nehemiah, but not by name.[2] He calls him .In R .אחד מן החכמים רך בשנים אשר אחרי כן הבאיש ריחו כנודע Hananel Nepi and R. Mordechai Samuel Ghirondi, Toldot Gedolei Yisrael (Trieste, 1853), p. 229, they write about Obviously, “Ishmaelite” is a .שאח”כ נעשה ישמעאלי :Nehemiah code word for Christian.[3] The story reported by Samuel David Luzzatto is that Nehemiah used to go to prostitutes, and when the rabbis found out about this they removed the rabbinate from him. Too embarrassed to remain in the Jewish community, Nehemiah apostatized.[4] Cecil Roth cites another Italian source that Nehemiah converted so he could marry a Christian woman. Unfortunately, his son and three daughters apostatized together with him (his wife had apparently already died).[5] Another apostate who should be mentioned is Michael Solomon Alexander (1799-1844), first Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. Before his apostasy, Alexander was a rabbi.[6] Rabbi Abraham Romano of Tunis also became an apostate. He converted at the end of the seventeenth century when R. Meir Lombrozo was appointed a dayan in his place. After Romano converted, he became well known as a Islamic preacher, and after his death his tomb was venerated by Muslims. -
Rov in a Time of Cholera - Jewish Review of Books
3/19/2020 Rov in a Time of Cholera - Jewish Review of Books Rov in a Time of Cholera By Elli Fischer March 19, 2020 Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmacher was about 35 years old, serving the community of Pleschen (today Pleszew, Poland) in his rst rabbinic appointment when cholera hit. This was the summer of 1831, and the second of ve cholera pandemics to strike during the 19th century. After its appearance in India, the disease spread west eventually from Russia to Poland and then to Prussia. It soon moved on to the British Isles and North America, killing hundreds of thousands of people. As the disease tore through his community, Rabbi Guttmacher wrote to his teacher, Rabbi Akiva Eger, the rabbi of Posen (Poznan). It is hard to overestimate the esteem in which the rabbinic world holds Rabbi Eger to this day. His glosses adorn every page of the standard editions of the Talmud and Shulchan Arukh, and his Talmudic discussions and halakhic rulings are masterpieces of analysis. Yet, when his disciple in Pleschen asked how to address the new scourge of cholera, Rabbi Akiva Eger answered with simple, practical advice. His letter, of course, reects 19th-century medical information, but it has rightly been making the rounds on Israeli social media and #FrumTwitter during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of rabbinic leadership during a crisis: With the help of God, may He be blessed. Monday of the Torah reading of “Nitzavim,” 5531, Posen. To Rabbi Eliyahu . the Rabbi Guttmacher’s head of the rabbinical court . of the holy amulet. -
Double Issue
Volume 41 Issue 2 Volume 41 Issue 3 Double Issue 63 Note to Readers Fall 2014 65 Sophie Bourgault The Unbridled Tongue: Plato, Parrhesia, and Philosophy 91 Richard Burrow Fulfillment in As You Like It 123 Alexandru Racu Strauss’s Machiavelli and Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor Book Reviews: 163 Steven H. Frankel Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism: Another Reason, Another Enlightenment by Corine Pelluchon 171 Michael Harding Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life by Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax 181 Will Morrisey Locke, Science, and Politics by Steven Forde Spring 2015 201 Jonathan Culp Happy City, Happy Citizens? The Common Good and the Private Good in Plato’s Republic 227 Aryeh Tepper The Problematic Power of Musical Instruments in the Bible 247 Julien Carriere & Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: 279 Steven Berg Machiavelli’s The Ass, Translation and Commentary 313 Erik S. Root Liberal Education Imperiled: Toward a Resurrection of Reason and Revelation in Higher Education Book Reviews: 349 Fred Baumann Leo Strauss on Moses Mendelssohn, translated and edited by Martin D. Yaffe 359 Gregory A. McBrayer On the God of the Christians (and on one or two others) by Rémi Brague 367 Rafael Major Shakespeare’s Political Wisdom by Timothy W. Burns ©2015 Interpretation, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of the contents may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. ISSN 0020-9635 Editor-in-Chief Hilail Gildin, Dept. of Philosophy, Queens College Associate Editor-in-Chief Timothy W. Burns, Baylor University Associate Editors Daniel Ian Mark • Geoffrey Sigalet General Editors Charles E. -
Download Catalogue
F i n e J u d a i C a . printed booKs, manusCripts, Ceremonial obJeCts & GraphiC art K e s t e n b au m & C om pa n y thursday, nov ember 19th, 2015 K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 61 Catalogue of F i n e J u d a i C a . BOOK S, MANUSCRIPTS, GR APHIC & CEREMONIAL A RT INCLUDING A SINGULAR COLLECTION OF EARLY PRINTED HEBREW BOOK S, BIBLICAL & R AbbINIC M ANUSCRIPTS (PART II) Sold by order of the Execution Office, District High Court, Tel Aviv ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 19th November, 2015 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 15th November - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Monday, 16th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 17th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday, 18th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Sempo” Sale Number Sixty Six Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KestenbauM & CoMpAny Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th street, 12th Floor, new york, NY 10001 • tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 e-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web site: www.Kestenbaum.net K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H. -
JO2004-V37-N04.Pdf
Now everyone can participate in the Seder, even if you or ycnu guests can't read Hebrew This user-friendly, handy, economical Haggadah includes the complete translation, detailed instructions, short comments and a transliteration that enables those who cannot read Hebrew to recite the Hebrew text. Every word of the traditional Hagaddah is transliterated in easy-to-follow English characters, enabling everybody at your table to say, sing, and celebrate each part of the Seder. No one will be left behind. Everyone's participation an enjoyment is enhanced with the all-new, user-friendly, TRANSLITERATED Hagaddah. Economically priced for bulk purchases. Rabbi Yechiel Spero's first book, Touched by a Story, took the world by storm and became an instant best-seller. Readers asked, "When is the next one coming out?" Ask no more. Here it is! Rabbi Spero has good taste, enthusiasm, passion, and talent - the per fect blend for a master storyteller, which he is. See for yourself with this magnificent new collection. If you read volume 1, you'll run, not walk, to get your copy of Volume 2. If not, stop denying yourself. JEWISH PARABLES The parable has long been a favorite and very effective tool of some of our leaders and teachers. Think of the Maggid of Dubno, the Chafetz Chaim, the Ben lsh Chai, Rabbi Shalom Schwadron - these great men were Mashal Masters, with the blessed knack of creating just the right story to make an essential point. Rabbi Yisroel Bronstein has learned their lessons well. In this valuable book, he has collected hundreds of parables from classic sources and arranged them by topic. -
The Facts About the Shimon Hatzaddik A/Ka “Sheikh Jarrah” Property Dispute
The Facts About the Shimon HaTzaddik a/ka “Sheikh Jarrah” Property Dispute Summary: The private (Jewish) owner of property brought eviction proceedings against Arab squatters and holdover tenants who failed to pay rent for decades. The current owner has a chain of title of voluntary purchases/sales that goes back to 1875, when two Jewish community trusts first bought the then-empty land. These ordinary eviction proceedings between private parties regarding 28 homes became a pretext to demonize Israel, perpetrate violent riots against Jews, and make bigoted demands that Israel override and ignore private property rights and discriminate against property owners simply because they are Jewish. In 1875, Two Jewish Religious Trusts Purchased the Shimon HaTzaddik Tomb and Surrounding Land: For centuries, Jews made pilgrimages to pray at the tomb of beloved 4th century BCE Kohen Gadol (high priest) Shimon HaTzadik (Simeon the Just), in Jerusalem, northeast of the Old City. In 1875, two Jewish trusts, the Sephardi Community Council and the (Ashkenazi) General Council of the Congregation of Israel (a.k.a the “General Committee of the Knesset of Israel”), purchased the tomb and nearby lands forming the “Shimon HaTzadik” and “Nahalat [Inheritance of] Shimon” neighborhoods. Palestine Chief Rabbi Avraham Ashkenazi and Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Meir Auerbach registered the property in the Ottoman land registry in 1875 and 1876. Dozens of poor Jewish families moved there and continued to live there. The Tomb of Simeon the Righteous ... chabad.org In the late 1800s, wealthy Arabs (including the al-Husseinis) created a nearby neighborhood that the Arabs called “Sheikh Jarrah,” centered around the tomb of Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a 12th century Muslim physician to Saladin. -
The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions
The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions by Zvi Septimus A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley in Jewish Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair Professor David Henkin Professor Naomi Seidman Spring 2011 The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions Copyright 2011 All rights reserved by Zvi Septimus Abstract The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions by Zvi Septimus Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair This dissertation proposes a poetics and semiotics of the Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)—how the Bavli, through a complex network of linguistic signs, acts on its implied reader's attempt to find meaning in the text. In doing so, I advance a new understanding of how the Bavli was composed, namely as a book written by its own readers in the act of transmission. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Bavli scholarship focused on the role of the Stam (the collective term for those people responsible for the anonymous voice of the Bavli) in the construction of individual Bavli passages (sugyot). Stam theory details how sugyot were crafted out of pre-existing sources and how the Stam works to control those sources in the service of a particular worldview. This dissertation locates a different force at work in the construction of the Bavli as a single unified book, an authorship that is above and against the work of the Stam—a Superstam. -
Memorable Sephardi Voices
MEMORABLE SEPHARDI VOICES Compiled by Lucien Gubbay The Montefiore Endowment Schaller House Campus, 44A Albert Road, London NW4 2SJ www.montefioreendowment.org.uk Kol Israel Haverim - Eretz Hemdah Alliance (KIAH) i Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies Jerusalem Memorable Sephardi Voices. Published by Chroniclers for the Montefiore Endowment, Schaller House Campus, 44A Albert Road, London NW4 2SJ ISBN 978-965-436-038-8 © 2020 Lucien Gubbay Back Cover: ‘Tree of Life’ embroidered pulpit cover by Estelle Levy Memorable Sephardi Voices, published by the trustees of the Montefiore Endowment, is a project developed by the Montefiore Endowment in partnership with KIAH (Alliance - Kol Israel Haverim). Eretz Hemdah (Institute for Advanced Jewish Sudies, Jerusalem), recognising the value of the work, undertook to advise and to check the English language text to ensure the accuracy of both the translations and the interpretations of the Sages’ quotations. It will also publish the original Hebrew texts on its own website. Designed and typeset by Geoff Fisher [email protected] Printed, bound and distributed by CPI (UK) Croydon CR0 4YY Copies of the paperback edition of Memorable Sephardi Voices may be obtained at a cost of GBP £9 each (plus postage) from CPI Your Way© at: https://www.cpiyourway.co.uk/uStore/44/Home (Scroll down to ‘Memorable Sephardi Voices’ on the left hand side of the opening page.) ii FOREWORD by Rabbi Yosef Carmel Rabbinical Dean of Eretz Hemdah, Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem From Girona and Fez in the West, sweeping through Aleppo to Bagh- dad and beyond in the East, the authority and wisdom of the great Sephardi sages spreads.