There are many things we take for granted as common knowledge which used to be very cutting edge information. Even if such things aren't...

I think it's safe to say that this is one of the most bizarre things I've come across: This is from an 1894 book called Memories of ...

I'm sure Max Lilienthal (1815-1882) needs no introduction, but for the purposes of this post, it's worth giving a brief explanation ...

Right smack in the middle of the " Dr.-Livingstone,-I-presume? " era of British adventurism in Africa, a journal belonging to Will...

The title page of the first edition of the מעשה רב (Ma'aseh Rav) , R. Yissachar Ber b"r Tanchum's important collection of some...

In 1852 the Russian Czar, as part of a continuing policy of Russification and harassment of his subject Jews, issued an order fining Jewish ...

With regard to "Shas Pollacks," or people with unusual memories who seemed to have visually memorized the entire Talmud and were a...

Here's an interesting little anecdote published in צבי לצדיק , a book of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Levin of London and Berlin's Torah and mi...

With regards to the Pelta/ Shafran interview below , I thought it might be a good idea to post some of the relevant background material, but...

Here's a guest post consisting of a very interesting interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran conducted by Baruch Pelta. Below is the interview ...

Here's a follow-up to my post about a Tosafist who may or may not have been named Peter ( link ). Here is a grave stone from Buda with a...

This is Rabbi Dr. Shabbetai Aharon Chaim Marini (1685-1762), a rebbe (teacher) of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal. He was a physici...

Here are two unrelated, but interesting literary excerpts. The first is from a letter by Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), who was a controver...

In 1884 two brothers named Moses - Adolph and Isaac - published their translation of the Pentateuch in Milwaukee. The edition was evidently...

The bottom line - a lot of people have trouble learning to read languages in an unfamiliar alphabet. the optimal time for such learning is c...

Here's a really nice photograph of R. David Zvi Hoffmann and his wife Zerline:

In 2000 Ari Zivotofsky wrote an article in Jewish Action on the proper etymology of Marcheshvan ( "What's the Truth about... ...

Insights In the Torah is a five-volume "Chumash with translation and the complete classic commentary of the master Rav and Maggid...

César de Saussure was born in 1705 into a family of exiled French Huguenots in Switzerland. In 1725 he journeyed to England and other parts ...

Ba dum ching. This joke was printed in several places, but the one I got it from is from a periodical called The Spirit of the Public Journa...