This is where I hope we can exchange important information and thoughts regarding minhag, Jewish thought and German Jewish history. These are all topics that I enjoy and have had some exposure to. There are some excellent sites in the Frum blogosphere that handle these subjects with very capable academic authorship. I don’t have much […]
Read moreElsewhere, we have written extensively about the implications of the closing phrase of the kedushas hayom within the Shabbos Amida. Specifically, the minhag is described as that of Frankfurt: ” Veyismechu vecho ohavei shimecha”. The firm halachic foundation and history that this nusach stands on was covered in the very first volume of Rabbi Hamburger’s […]
Read moreRecently, I had the great pleasure of reading an anthology of the smaller works of the famed popular historian, Mr. Hermann Schwab z’l. “Hermann Schwab. Historian of German Jewry: His Life and Shorter Works” is distributed by Feldheim Books. For full disclosure, I will mention that for a long time I have had a […]
Read moreI have been going through the book “The Shofar”, by our Kehilla’s ba’al toke’a, Rabbi Bentzion Ettlinger. It is a good read and a carefully written kuntres, as he describes it within. It is also comprehensive, and thorough, and bears the mark of years of experience. (I found the discussion about eating before Tekios most fascinating.) He does mention our minhogim, […]
Read moreIf you are an expatriate Washington Heights person, like me, the times that you can most easily come for a visit are Tisha B’Av, Hoshana Raba, and Chanukah. These are weekday occasions. In fact, there are several regulars that come only at these times. While all the tefilos and yomim tovim are special in our tradition, I have long ago made peace […]
Read moreIn American Yeshivah circles it is common for the individual to say “Yomar Na Yisroel/Beis Aharon/Yirei Hashem” and not to rely on the chazan. This is the practice described in Mishnah Berura citing Magen Avraham, O.Ch. 422. The Tur, however describes the Hallel as written in the siddur, where the Khal replies Hodu Lashem, and remain quiet for […]
Read moreYesterday I encountered a comfortably familiar explanation of Rashi in Sukkah 51b. In explaining what a “bimah” is, Rashi calls it an “almemar“. The commentary called “Hametargem” (printed in the rear of every Vilna Shas) explains that this is “an old word used in all places of Aschkenaz, and has roots in the Arabic”. To my […]
Read moreThis year Rav Schwab’s Yahrzeit falls out on Purim Katan, as it was the year he passed away. I want to share a few ideas, memories, and teachings of the Rav zt’l that come to mind today. Since I was a young boy my father z’l would bring me to the Mishna Berurah shiur of the Rav on Shabbos afternoons. I was […]
Read moreA friend alerted me to a post on the website forum.otzar.net that was written this week. I have it translated below and a link to the recording of a sweet and excellently executed documentation of this tune! Enjoy and have a happy Chanukah. Maoz Tzur – an ancient melody for the holy genius Rabbi Yaakov […]
Read moreAmong the people you find in a German Jewish community are some who are blessed with an appreciation for the Jewish calendar and its science. You will also encounter some who are “calendar savants”. These are the handful of people who remember when it is your bar mitzvah Shabbos many years into your adulthood, and […]
Read more!) In an earlier post we discussed the wording of Roedelheim in the Areshes Sifaseinu prayer wherein during malchios it says “מבין ומאזין…לקול תרועותינו”, whereas after zichronos and shofaros it has it as “Lekol Tekiaseinu”. I later found a meideval Spanish Kabalist (Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla) (brought in the popular mussar sefer “Sifsei Chaim”) who […]
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