Ephraim E. Urbach on the Ten Commandments

Related to this shabbes' Shabbat Nachamu, I think that you'll enjoy the important article by the late Prof. Ephraim E. Urbach, "The Role of the Ten Commandments in Jewish Worship," in Ben-Zion Segal, ed., The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 1990), 161-189, reprinted in Ephraim E. Urbach, Collected Writings in Jewish Studies, ed. Robert Brody & Moshe D. Herr (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 1999), 289-317.

Sefer Devarim and Nahmanides

During yesterday afternoon's reading of Parashat Devarim at Mt. Sinai Jewish Center of Washington Heights -- on Rabbi Moshe Goldfeder's farewell weekend -- I forgot to mention, in a previous post at the Michtavim blog, about Yaakov Elman, "The Book of Deuteronomy as Revelation: Nahmanides and Abarbanel," in Yaakov Elman and Jeffrey S. Gurock, eds., Hazon Nahum: Studies in Jewish Law, Thought, and History - Presented to Dr. Norman Lamm on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1997), 229-250; and for another Ramban-nugget, see Bernard Septimus, "'Open Rebuke and Concealed Love': Nahmanides and the Andalusian Tradition," in Isadore Twersky, ed., Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations in His Religious and Literary Virtuosity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983), 11-34, esp. 20-22.

From Volozhin to Ma'aleh Adumim

Related to sessions C 12-13 of the previously-mentioned graduate seminar with Prof. Immanuel Etkes (see here) -- and for a PDF of the course syllabus, posted with the express permission of Professor Etkes, see here (PDF) -- several weeks ago was the 188th yahrzeit of Rav Hayyim of Volozhin, about whom see the PhD-turned-book by Norman Lamm, Torah for Torah's Sake: In the Works of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin and His Contemporaries (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing, 1989); and see the earliest-published- (rarely-cited-) article by Immanuel Etkes, "The Doctrine and Activity of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin as the Reaction of Mitnaggdic Society to Hasidism," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 38-39 (1970-1971): 1-45 (Hebrew), and expanded in idem, Yahid be-Doro: The Gaon of Vilna (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 1998), 164-222 (Hebrew); and idem, The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image, trans. Jeffrey M. Green (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 151-208, the core of which was based on his MA thesis (1967), completed under the direction of Professor Jacob Katz at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For a complimentary perspective to Prof. Etkes' above article, see Elazar Katzman, "The Relationship Between the Family of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin and the Hasidic Movement," Yeshurun 20 (2008): 1026-1038 (Hebrew); and within the same issue of Yeshurun, see Dovid Kamenetsky, "Relationship Between Baal HaTanya and Misnagdim," Yeshurun 20 (2008): 782-799 (Hebrew); and for scholarship on the Etz Hayyim Yeshiva of Volozhin, see Shaul Stampfer, The Lithuanian Yeshiva (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2005), 29-266 (Hebrew), and the earlier article by Samuel K. Mirsky, "Yeshivat Volozhin," in Samuel K. Mirsky, Mosedot Torah be-Europa: Jewish Institutions of Higher Learning in Europe (New York: Ogen Publishing House, 1956), 1-86 (Hebrew); and the recently-revealed trove of primary material that has been unearthed in Immanuel Etkes and Shlomo Tikochinski, eds., Yeshivot Lita: Pirkei Zikhronot (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2004), 59-218 (Hebrew); as well as the articles by Immanuel Etkes, "A Shtetl with a Yeshiva: The Case of Volozhin," in Steven T. Katz, ed., The Shtetl: New Evaluations (New York and London: New York University Press, 2007), 39-52; idem, "Marriage and Torah Study Among the Lomdim in Lithuania in the Nineteenth Century," in David Kraemer, ed., The Jewish Family: Metaphor and Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 153-178; and idem, "The Relationship Between Talmudic Scholarship and the Institution of the Rabbinate in Nineteenth-Century Lithuanian Jewry," in Leo Landman, ed., Scholars and Scholarship: The Interaction Between Judaism and Other Cultures (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1990), 107-132.

Also in the category of little known aspects related to Yeshivat Etz Hayyim, see Gershon David Hundert, "The Library of the Study Hall in Volozhin, 1762: Some notes on the basis of a newly discovered manuscript," Jewish History 14 (2000): 225-244; and idem, "The Library of the Study Hall in Volozhin," The Gaon of Vilnius and the Annals of Jewish Culture (Vilnius University Publishing House, 1998), 247-256. For a little-known/rarely-cited article, see also Shaul Stampfer, "Haskamot of Rav Hayyim of Volozhin," Alei Sefer 4 (1977): 163-170 (Hebrew); and for related scholarship on rabbinic approbations, see Aharon Ahrend, "Haskamot to Contemporary Religious Books," Alei Sefer 18 (1996): 157-170 (Hebrew); and as I mentioned in a previous post at the Michtavim blog, ("Dor, Dor, ve-Dorshav: A Unique Historiographical Trip from Ashkenaz to Uman") regarding the recent annual published by Machon Moreshet Ashkenaz in Bnei Brak, and specifically, Yehiel Goldhaber, "A Haskama on the German Edition of the Talmud That Was Hidden," Yerushateinu 3 (2008): 304-331 (Hebrew), which I then pointed interested readers to Dan Rabinowitz, "The Hatam Sofer's Retraction of his Approbation to the Pinner Talmud," the Seforim blog (19 February 2008), available here; and Shnayer Z. Leiman, "Some Notes on the Pinner Affair," the Seforim blog (28 February 2008), available here, as well as Adam Mintz, "Words, Meaning and Spirit: The Talmud in Translation," Torah u-Madda Journal 5 (1994): 115-155, and idem, "The Talmud in Translation," in Sharon L. Mintz & Gabriel M. Goldstein, eds., Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein (New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005), as well as Chaim Rapoport, "Regarding Printing of the Talmud with New Translations," Ohr Yisrael 50 (Tevet 5768): 53-78 (Hebrew).

Related to (the time-honored tradition of shidduch [!]) lists of students who studied at Yeshivat Etz Hayyim in Volozhin, see Shnayer Z. Leiman and Genrich Agranovsky, "Three Lists of Students Studying at the Volozhin Yeshiva in 1879," in Michael A. Shmidman, ed., Turim: Studies in Jewish History and Literature Presented to Dr. Bernard Lander, vol. 2 (New York: Touro College Press, 2008), 1-24; and related to the debate over the longstanding debate on the Hebrew spelling of Chicago, (discussed in 15n32,) see the Kuntress ha-Aretz le-Arehah, (re)printed at the end of Mendel Senderovic, She'elot u-Teshuvot Atzei Besamim: Even ha-Ezer (Milwaukee: MBH Publications, 2005), 36-37 (Hebrew), based on his earlier pamphlet in idem, Kuntress ha-Aretz le-Arehah (Milwaukee: [n.p.], 1999), 23-24 (Hebrew). For a related halakhic discussion -- albeit below the Mason Dixon line -- that seems to have been surprisingly overlooked by contemporary historians of American religious life, see Nahum L. Rabinovitch, She'elot u-Teshuvot Siah Nahum (Maaleh Adumim: Maaliyot, 2008; Hebrew), 375-379 (#111), with whom I spent a wonderful shabbat parashat Zakhor several months ago at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Ma'aleh Adumim.

Modern Judaism 29:2 (May 2009)

A new issue of Modern Judaism 29:2 (May 2009) was recently published and includes several articles (that will possibly be) of interest to readers of the Michtavim blog.

The article by David Assaf, "'A Heretic Who has No Faith in the Great Ones of the Age': the Clash Over the Honor of Or Ha-Hayyim," Modern Judaism 29:2 (May 2009): 194-225, is based on idem, Ne'ehaz ba-Sevakh - Caught in the Thicket: Chapters of Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2006), 235-254 (chapter four) (Hebrew), and related to this article, see Reuven Margoliyot, Toledot Rabbi Hayyim ben Attar (Lwow: Margulies, 1926; Hebrew), available here; and for a PDF of the recently-posted PDF at HebrewBooks.org (part of yesterday's posted second batch from July 2009), see also Reuven Margoliyot, Sefer Ner la-Ma'or (Lwow: Margulies, 1932; Hebrew), available here; and the later articles by Gedalyah Nigal, "Praises of Rabbi Hayim Ben Attar," in Moshe Amar, ed., Kav le-Kav: Studies in Maghreb Jewry in Memory of Shaul Ziv (Jerusalem: Dovev Siftey Yeshanim Ner ha-Ma'arav, 1983), 73–93 (Hebrew); Dan Manor, "Rav Hayyim ben Attar in Hasidic Teaching," Pe'amim 20 (1984): 88–110 (Hebrew); and Meir Benayahu, "On the History of Beit Medrash Knesset Israel in Jerusalem," Jerusalem 2 (1949): 103–31 (Hebrew), and for those keeping score at home, this was the fiftieth article ever published by Meir Benayahu - email me for more information....

Also in this latest issue of Modern Judaism is an article by a friend of mine from Yeshiva University by Yosef Lindell, "Beacon of Renewal: The Educational Philosophy of the Lida Yeshiva in the Context of Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines’ Approach to Zionism," Modern Judaism 29:2 (May 2009): 268-294, and as several weeks ago was the 94th yahrzeit of Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines, founder and leader of Mizrachi and son-in-law of the renowned Rabbi Joseph Raisin of Telz, who had published his Ohr Hadash al Tzion (Vilna: Widow and Brothers Romm, 1901), available here (PDF), shortly prior to the founding conference of Mizrachi (March 1902) that was held in Vilna, I think that it is only appropriate to also send around several articles related to Rav Reines. For an early biographical sketch about Rav Reines in a memorial volume for his (and Mizrachi's) honor, see the article by Rav Reines' personal secretary, Moshe Cohen, "Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines," in Judah Leib ha-Kohen Fishman (Maimon), ed., Sefer ha-Mizrachi: In Memory of Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1946), 83-101 (Hebrew); and among other recent sources, see the later articles by Yosef Salmon, "The Yeshivah of Lida: A Unique Institution of Higher Learning," YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 15 (1974): 108–125; Eliezer Schweid, "The Beginnings of a Zionistic-National Theology: The Philosophy of Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines," in Joseph Dan & Joseph Hacker, eds., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, Philosophy, and Ethical Literature: Presented to Isaiah Tishby on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 1986), 689-720 (Hebrew); Elie Holzer, "The Use of Military Force in the Religious Zionist Ideology of Rabbi Yitzhak Ya'akov Reines and His Successors," in Peter Y. Medding, ed., Jews and Violence: Images, Ideologies, Realities (Jerusalem: Oxford University Press, 2002) [=Studies in Contemporary Jewry 18 (2002)], 74-94; Aviezer Ravitzky, "Covenant of Faith or Covenant of Fate? Competing Orthodox Conceptions of the Secular Jews," in Rachel Elior and Peter Schafer, eds., Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought: Festchrift in Honor of Joseph Dan on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday (Tübingen: Mohr Sieback, 2005), 272-307; and for a little-discussed PhD-turned-volume about Rav Reines, see Joseph Wanefsky, Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines: His Life and Thought (New York: Philosophical Library, 1970), based on his 1968 dissertation from Yeshiva University. For a volume that was lovingly published in memory of Rav Wanefsky with articles by his teachers, colleagues, students, and admirers -- all who proudly stood and served Rav Wanefsky during his many years of study at Yeshiva University -- in Daniel Z. Feldman, Shmuel Maybruch, Dovid Gottlieb, eds., Sefer Zikaron Ketonet Yosef (New York: Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, 2002; Hebrew).

Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein

Several weeks ago, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan celebrated the publication of the two-volume work of Rafael Medoff, ed., Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein (Jersey City: Ktav Publishing House, 2009), and of the several dozen contributors to this volume -- the table of contents is available here (PDF) and here (PDF) -- only three also contributed to the volume published nearly thirty years ago in Leo Landman, ed., Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1980). Those who contributed to both volumes are Lawrence Grossman, "Isaac Leeser's Mentor: Rabbi Abraham Sutro, 1784-1869," Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume, pp. 151-162; Jonathan I. Helfand, "A Megillah for the Damascus Affair," Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume, pp. 175-184; Norman Lamm, "Notes on the Concept of Imitatio Dei," Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume, pp. 217-229; and for the table of contents to this earlier Lookstein festschrift, see here (PDF).

The two volumes of Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein are filled with important studies that reflect the broad range of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein's interest and involvement in Orthodox Judaism (both current and historical) and the final section of the volumes is a monograph length chapter -- indeed, it was published last year as a standalone volume as Rafael Medoff, Rav Chesed: The Life of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein (Jersey City: Ktav Publishing House, 2008) -- and while the range of articles in the volumes will be of interest to each person, according to their own interests, Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein is sure to become a staple of 'the Library of Orthodox Judaism,' in many ways quite similar to that of Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume, albeit with quite many more articles.

For one of the several dozen articles from the Sefer ha-Yovel for Rabbi Lookstein the younger, see Adam Mintz, "Is Coca-Cola Kosher? Rabbi Tobias Geffen and the History of American Orthodoxy," Rav Chesed: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein, pp. 75-90, which graciously mentions (90n48) a blog post that I wrote during Summer 2006, where I discussed Rabbi Geffen and his relationship to Harold Hirsch and the latter's significant role in the history of Coca-Cola, and mentioned Jeff R. Schutts, "Coca-Colonization, 'Refreshing' Americanization, or Nazi Volksgetrank? The History of Coca-Cola in Germany, 1929-1961," (PhD dissertation, Georgetown University, 2003); shortly thereafter, I removed the AJHistory blog from the internet and moved over some of my better posts to the Michtavim blog.

439th yahrzeit of Rav Moshe Cordovero

This week is the 439th yahrzeit of Rav Moshe Cordovero, about whom see most recently, Zohar Raviv, “Fathoming the Heights, Ascending the Dephts - Decoding the Dogman Within the Enigma: The Life, Works and Speculative Piety of Rabbi Moses Cordoeiro (Safed 1522-1570),” (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 2007), esp. 10-28, and for an article published over a century ago related to discussion about Safed and her mystics, see Solomon Schechter, "Safed in the Sixteenth Century: A City of Legists and Mystics," Studies in Judaism second series (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1908), 231-297; and for a recently-published article about Ramak, see Marvin J. Heller, "His Hand Did Not Leave Hers Until He Was Grown: Two Little Known Works from Moses Cordovero (Ramak)," Los Muestros 44 (2001): 44-46, reprinted in idem, Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2008), 278-283.

Returning to New York City, June 2009

Since my return to New York City from Jerusalem, in June 2009, I have been rejoined by old friends and new friends, and have also returned to my favorite library haunts of New York City (and Kew Gardens Hills, Silver Spring, and Lake Como too), where I have been happily spending my days tracking down many of those harder to find items that I have been looking for throughout the entire year, and have also driven down some new avenues too and have put in a request for additional harddrive space on my computer.

Among the interesting items that I came across over the past few weeks is "the famous exchange" (dated forty years ago on 26 June 1969) from Morton Smith to Gershom Scholem, who, writing from his faculty office in Fayerweather Hall at Columbia University, apologized-in-advance for not being able to attend the then-upcoming Fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies, held in Jerusalem on 4-12 August 1969 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Guy G. Stroumsa, ed., Morton Smith and Gershom Scholem, Correspondence 1945-1982 (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2008), 147 (#88). With this post at the Michtavim blog, I shall likewise offer as my own excuse for not attending this year's Fifteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies -- which will include approximately 1,400 lectures in 380 sessions -- with a similar "excuse" as I move inch-by-inch towards finishing my MA coursework at the Bernard Revel Graduate School, Yeshiva University, and will study this summer with Prof. Immanuel Etkes ("Hasidim and Mitnagdim") and Prof. Jeffrey R. Woolf ("History of the Jews of Italy"); a cornerstone reading from the graduate course is the as-of-yet-unsurpassed magesterial tome by Cecil Roth, The History of the Jews of Italy (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1946), available here, courtesy of the Internet Archive (Archive.org), and it is fully-searchable too! For a quarter-century-young evaluation of this legacy, see Robert Bonfil, "The Historian's Perception of the Jews in the Italian Renaissance: Towards a Reappraisal," Revue des Études Juives 143:1-2 (January-June 1984): 59-82; and also idem, "The History of the Jews in Italy: Memory and Identity," in Bernard D. Cooperman & Barbara Garvin, eds., The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity (Bethesda, MD: University Press of Maryland, 2000), 25-44; idem, "How Golden Was the Age of the Renaissance in Jewish Historiography?" History and Theory 27:4 [Beiheft 27: Essays in Jewish Historiography in Memory of Arnaldo Momigliano] (December 1988): 78-102, reprinted in David B. Ruderman, ed., Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (New York and London: New York University Press, 1992), 219-251; and for a bibliography of Roth's writings until 1966 -- he passed away in 1970 just after seeing the final galleys of (his) Encyclopedia Judaica -- see Oskar K. Rabinowicz, "A Bibliography of the Writings of Cecil Roth," in John M. Shaftesley, ed., Remember the Days: Essays on Anglo-Jewish History presented to Cecil Roth by members of the Council of The Jewish Historical Society of England (London: The Jewish Historical Society of England, 1966), 351-387; and for a thesis that I have not yet read (notwithstanding my persistent efforts of the past several years), but would greatly appreciate if someone can please send me, see Elisa Lawson, "Cecil Roth and the Imagination of the Jewish Past, Present and Future in Britain, 1925-1964," (PhD dissertation, University of Southampton, 2005).

Mazel Tov to ha-Rav ha-Lord II

Mazel Tov to my friends and readers of the Michtavim blog in the United Kingdom, and around the world, on the recent news of Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks' appointment to the House of Lords. Chief Rabbi, shlita, will (soon) henceforth be known as Lord Jonathan Sacks, following in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor Lord Immanuel Jakobovits -- who had previously been appointed, at age 27, to the position of Chief Rabbi of Ireland -- and who, in the House of Lords on 9 February 1988, declared (in a modified pledge under the Oaths Act, 1888): "I, Immanuel, Baron Jakobovits, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to the law," rather than "swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God." Mazel Tov to ha-Rav ha-Lord, shlita, and to Lady Sacks and their entire family and community on this historic occasion.