On the Main Line

Very Interesting. Especially the emphasis of R. Sa...

2013-05-23T19:14:28.545-04:00

Very Interesting. Especially the emphasis of R. Salanter, who had no direct role with the yeshiva.

About a year ago, I bought a scroll containing Nev...

2013-05-23T15:23:39.452-04:00

About a year ago, I bought a scroll containing Nevi'im Rishonim from a defunct rural Long Island synagogue. It was about 100 years old and the Ktav was Beis Yosef. I imagine someone brought it over from Europe at some point, it looked rather well used.

Are you sure that they had scrolls not just for נב...

2013-05-23T08:02:02.965-04:00

Are you sure that they had scrolls not just for נביאים (which can be used for הפטרות) but for all of כתובים as well?

Our shul in Rochester had Nach scrolls until about...

2013-05-23T02:11:24.336-04:00

Our shul in Rochester had Nach scrolls until about 10 years ago, when they were sold to raise much-needed cash. They had been seldom if ever used, except to be carried around by the less strong on Simchas Torah. I'm also not sure how complete a set they were. But I recently learned, to my surprise, that the 5 megillos were kept. Just this past Shavuos, an exceptionally talent baal korei read Ruth from the klaf, and even recited a bracha over it, which I gather is not a universal custom but was the Vilna Gaon's.

That would be my guess. The opera was based on th...

2013-05-23T01:50:22.837-04:00

That would be my guess. The opera was based on the Spanish literary character of Don Juan Tenorio. I'm further guessing that the people in the news article pronounced the name as "Don Jew-un," as Lord Byron did in his poem of the same name, published 1819-1824.

The chazzan that we had for the Yamim Noraim in the early '60's made discreet use of a tuning fork, and I used to wonder how kosher that was. According to DailyHalacha.com, the Arukh Ha-Shulhan OK'd its use on Shabbos, the Mishnah Berurah disagreed, and R. Ovadiah Yosef accordingly ruled that "one should preferably refrain from using a tuning fork on Shabbat and Yom Tov, in deference to those authorities who rule stringently on this issue. However, one should not object forcefully to those who are lenient in this regard, as they do have authorities on whom to rely."

Is that simply Mozart's Don Giovanni ?

2013-05-22T16:57:02.884-04:00

Is that simply Mozart's Don Giovanni ?

Or rather, specifically the city of Fez; I don'...

2013-05-22T10:18:01.477-04:00

Or rather, specifically the city of Fez; I don't think it was much more widespread than that. But I don't know.

Complicated. The "Sifra De'Aftarta" ...

2013-05-22T10:06:28.956-04:00

Complicated. The "Sifra De'Aftarta" is mentioned in the Gemara, where
Yossel cited. (The Amoraim forbid producing or using such a scroll,
because it is not a full book, but the Stamma Di-gemara reluctantly
permits, because of ‘Eth La‘asoth.) In Rabbenu Gershom's time, they are
still being used in Ashkenaz. However, by the time of the Shibbolé
Ha-leqet, he writes:

"Now, in all the communities in the Maghreb [or
perhaps:
“in the west”], and the areas of the Arabs, and Oskilia [apparently
Sicily], they read out of books of Haftaroth in scroll-form – but we [in
Germany?? Italy??] read the Haftaroth from [books] which are just like
our other ḥumashim [i.e., codices], and we recite berakhoth over them,
and nobody objects to our practice."

Nobody, objected, that is,
until the Levush (1530-1609); after his day, some Ashkenazim in Bohemia
and Germany began producing Sifra De'Aftarta scrolls. Incidentally, some
North African Sephardim had never stopped in the first place, as
attested by R' Avraham Abulafia in his note on that passage in the
Levush.

According to Geni (http://www.geni.com/people/Yitz...

2013-05-22T10:01:03.740-04:00

According to Geni (http://www.geni.com/people/Yitzchok-Yellin/6000000013650992171), the advertiser, Yitzchok Yaakov Yellin, was a grandson of R' Shalom Shachne Yellin, and lived from 1885 from 1964. You might be able to track down one of his living descendants (there are 69 descendants just in Geni) and learn more about whether any of these scrolls ever actually got written.

I hope we will be notified on this blog when the b...

2013-05-22T09:40:06.092-04:00

I hope we will be notified on this blog when the book is published.

ר' נחום עיין גיטין ס. בנוגע לספרא דאפטרתא

2013-05-22T09:38:59.315-04:00

ר' נחום
עיין גיטין ס. בנוגע לספרא דאפטרתא

In the side room of the Kotel, there's a moder...

2013-05-22T00:56:13.341-04:00

In the side room of the Kotel, there's a modern Tehillim scroll- it's under glass with its handles sticking out so you can turn it and read it. Also, I see lots of Sepharadim reading Shir HaShirim from a klaf on Friday afternoon.

I've heard of other Litvish Charedim, like R' Kanievsky, in Israel writing out and/or using the rest, which would be Mishlei, Iyov, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemia, Chronicles.

Can you discuss the origin of "Haftorah scrolls," which are klafim with just the haftarot on them?

By the way, it seems it isn't free. :-(

A little googling and a hunch turned up some inter...

2013-05-21T02:57:08.369-04:00

A little googling and a hunch turned up some interesting information about Mr. and Mrs. Julian Nathan. Julian (1850-1936) was a son of Benjamin Nathan, an “Our Crowd” aristocrat whose 1870 murder remains one of New York’s great unsolved mysteries. Julian’s brother Washington Nathan was a prime suspect, but nothing was ever proved. (Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was a relative and namesake.) Mrs. Julian Nathan’s name is given as Sarah Friedman Nathan, which indicates that she was indeed the daughter of R. Aaron Zvi Friedman, author of Tub Taam. This also makes her my grandfather’s aunt. I believe she was the one known to the family as “Aunt Sadie.” Family lore describes her as a grande dame who was snobbishly proud of her yichus by marriage and as not terribly frum. She reportedly once challenged my grandfather’s wearing of a yarmulke. The fact that she took such an interest in Palestine and actually met with R. Auerbach comes as a pleasant surprise to me.

80 is very close in relative terms, Bimhera Veyame...

2013-05-21T00:16:14.126-04:00

80 is very close in relative terms, Bimhera Veyameinu. Alternatively, 9/11 could be considered the beginning of the end of the exile.

Strange. Why revise only Armenian scriptures? Why ...

2013-05-14T12:22:59.864-04:00

Strange. Why revise only Armenian scriptures? Why not any bible - primarily Jewish - which, as we know, was quite rampant then? This leads to believe that it was nothing really that offensive but another attack on the people as the Turks (still under Ottoman rule then) had much animosity towards the Armenians. They could have simply have been looking to tchepeh them.

Pardon me, but this sounds highly dubious given th...

2013-05-14T06:03:57.923-04:00

Pardon me, but this sounds highly dubious given that the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar is very well known to Muslims through the Qur'an (under the names Yûsuf and Zulaykha), is a major motif of sufi speculation on mystical love (like in Sa'adi's Bustan) and figures prominently in Ottoman and Persian iconography (notably Behzâd's work).
Methinks it's just a spoof.

Presumably the Joseph narrative picked up again wi...

2013-05-14T03:03:18.168-04:00

Presumably the Joseph narrative picked up again with him in prison, for no apparent reason. If this "reformed" Bible had been allowed to stand, imagine what kind of Armenian midrashim would have sprung up to fill in the gap. They might have even guessed at the truth.

S., I take back what I said about the commonality ...

2013-05-13T17:30:42.122-04:00

S., I take back what I said about the commonality of substituting a "פ" for a "ו" (vav), because indeed in lower Germanic dialects it is found.

Nonetheless I still am not convinced of the origin of "daven" evolving from "folio" based on the other reason I suggested; siddurim (the new "folios") only surfaced later on and just because the earliest mention of the word is in the 1500's that doesn't mean that the word wasn't part of Yiddish/German jargon up until then.

In some cases yes, in some cases no. But my guess ...

2013-05-13T17:28:06.067-04:00

In some cases yes, in some cases no. But my guess is that this is nothing more and nothing less than what people were saying about this rabbi, and it may have been second-hand at that; no research at all. Without a doubt people like to overestimate and exaggerate people's age. I remember when Rav Shach was said to be 105 for something like 10 years.

Very interesting. Although, curious; think they ...

2013-05-13T17:15:44.928-04:00

Very interesting.

Although, curious; think they had birth records back then? Think the editor of that article conducted such an accurate research?

Mazal Tov

2013-05-13T12:20:27.951-04:00

Mazal Tov

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2013-05-12T09:19:10.762-04:00

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it's from december 3rd 1771 not december 5th h...

2013-05-10T18:35:19.833-04:00

it's from december 3rd 1771 not december 5th http://newspaperarchive.com/london-hoey-dublin-mercury/1771-12-03

I have to admit it. That was me.

2013-05-10T15:01:52.574-04:00

I have to admit it. That was me.

Mazel Tov and many thanks S. keep up the great wor...

2013-05-10T11:51:58.097-04:00

Mazel Tov and many thanks S. keep up the great work