The J-blogosphere (e.g. I, II) has been taking notice of Google Scholar, a new service by Google that allows the searching of academic journals. However, I believe that a development of far more significance is Google Print. Google Print puts the content of books where you can find it most easily; right in Google search results. To use Google Print, ...

God’s Beloved: A Defense of Chosenness by R. Meir Soloveichik At this point the objection may understandably be raised: Does this mean that Judaism rejects the equality of man before God? Can a Jew indeed affirm the democratic ideal, according to which “all men are created equal” on account of rights “endowed by their Creator?” The answer is that while ...

From Sefer Ha-Hayim: Beruriah, the scholarly wife of the Tanna R. Meir, is mentioned a handful of times in the Talmud, always in a very positive light. It is therefore surprising that Rashi, in his commentary to Avodah Zarah (18b), should relate a very negative story about Beruriah in which she ends up committing suicide. There is no extant earlier ...

Peta vs. Rubashkin

Marc B. Shapiro, in his book The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised p. 111, states that R. Ashier ben Yehiel (the Rosh) is of the view that the Men of the Great Assembly (scholars around the time of Ezra) removed various letters in the Torah, a process called “Ittur Soferim.” Additionally, the Netziv cites this Rosh approvingly, ...

Dr Jeffrey Woolf argues that the make-up of contemporary society in Israel mirrors that of the time of Hanukah.

I pulled out a somewhat-old issue of Tradition (Summer 2002) to look up an article on stem cell research and realized that I had never finished reading a different article in that issue. So I took the time this morning to read it. The article is “On Egalitarianism and Halakha” by Marc D. Stern. I remember being disappointed that the ...

An Addendum: In 1940, Prof. Samuel Atlas of Hebrew Union College published in London the novellae of Ra’avad of Posquierres on Bava Kamma with his critical notes, along with some notes from his friend R. Yehiel Ya’akov Weinberg. In 1963, this was reprinted in Jerusalem and New York. In 1971, the question was posed to R. Menashe Klein whether one ...

I wrote a long post on the subject of wills in halakhah but decided not to post it. The issue is serious and the lack of a will may cause children to fight over money during a time of mourning and possibly violate the prohibition against stealing. For the proper way to write a will according to halakhah, see this ...

Reb Lazer shares his 10 commandments for husbands and for wives.