פרק בתולדות חייו של הרב בעמח"ס בית הלוי

Kevin has an important post on the anti-semitic orientation of some biblical scholars.

Or in the oft-cited words of Solomon Schecter - Higher criticism = Higher anti-semitism:


Our great claim to the gratitude of mankind is that we gave to the world the word of God, the Bible. We have stormed heaven to snatch down this heavenly gift, as the Paitanic expression is; we threw ourselves into the breach and covered it with our bodies against every attack; we allowed ourselves to be slain by hundreds and thousands rather than become unfaithful to it; and we bore witness to its truth and watched over its purity in the face of a hostile world. The Bible is our sole raison d'etre, and it is just this which the Higher anti-Semitism is seeking to destroy, denying all our claims for the past, and leaving us without hope for the future.

The Warsaw "Black list"

"And we need to strengthen religion.. and we should have a black list, like they had in Warsaw.. and anyone who desecrates Shabbos in public, we will not bury hm, and we will separate him from the rest of Israel..and the bring close those who have severed the cords that attach them to our religion and our Torah, that is against the law.."

If I had time, I would cite sources that show that the vast majority of Posekim vehemently disagree with this position - but anyone is welcome to comment...

Quote of the month

But the academy finds its own way in these things, and often prefers the maunderings of nineteenth centry antisemitic German alcoholics to anything else.

Biblicalia

I second!!

Does anyone have Ze'ev Rabiner's biography of R Yosef Zecharia Stern? If so, what information is there on R' Yosef Zechariah's wife/ves?

New Hebrewbooks update

I don't have time for a full list but a god many of Leopold (YY) Greenwalds books have been added including his two volume work on the relationship between Bavi and Yerushalmi (see most recently, Alisssa Gray's dissertation for a continuing discussion of the subject) and his books on Hungarian Jewry.

Feel free to comment with any other interesting titles ou might find.

Way cool!!

Check out the - Collection of pictures of Jerusalemites - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/36605

This is the first picture I've seen of R' Chaim Hirschenson pg. 15