Purim of Basra (Iraq) The Massacre of 1776
The Givat Shaul neighborhood in Yerushalayim is named after Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar (1817-1906) who in 1893 became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Rishon Lezion) of Eretz Yisroel as well as […]
Four Rare Commentaries on Esther
With the approach of Purim, Chaim Eleazar Reich, Boro Park’s publisher of rare books, has put out reproductions of four old commentaries on Esther. R. Zecharya Ibn Saruk was an […]
Shabbat Teshuva — Shabbat Beinataim
The Sabbath Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is called Shabbath Teshuva (Sabbath of Repentance) or Shabbat Shuva (named for the Haftara Shuvu Yisrael — Hosea 14: 2-10– which is […]
A Note on a Yom Kippur Piyut
During the last one hundred and fifty years great rabbis and scholars wrote important and interesting notes on the prayers and Piytim, but because these were published in periodicals or […]
More on Yetziv Pitgam
Several years ago I wrote in this column about the Piyut Yetziv Pigam which is recited on the second day of Shavuot before the reading of the Haftara. I remarked […]
The Passover Haggadah of the Talmudic Encyclopedia
A Short time ago the Passover Haggadah of the Talmdic Encyclopedia came off the press in Jerusalem. The Haggadah which is entirely in Hebrew, consists of two parts. The first […]
An Unusual Simhat Torah Custom
Prof. Moshe Bar Asher of the Hebrew University has published in recent years several studies about the particular religious customs of the Jews of southwestern France. Prof. Bar-Asher discusses the […]
The Custom of Hanging an Effigy of Haman
Since the times of the Gemara there has been a custom to not only hang Haman in effigy, but to burn the figure as well. Today, though, you’d be hard […]
Purim of Cairo
For more than four centuries, up until the the years between the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956, when a mass […]
The Role of the Esrog in Childbirth
Rectifying the Sin of the Tree of Knowledge. Back in the 18th century, a fascinating story circulated among Jews that the Queen of Prussia, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King […]