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Solomon of yore said in his wisdom, “More than these, my son, beware of making many books without limit” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Our rabbis interpreted this in Tractate Eruvin that it teaches the…
The Talmud is one of the great, classical writings of human civilization—enduring, influential, nourishing. It claims its place among the most successful pieces of writing in the history of humanity…
An Addendum to the History of R. Moses Isserles
Rabbinic literature assigns to customs (minhag) an extensive and highly prominent role. In fact, the talmudic sages always looked upon customs with…
In those days a new light shone forth over the skies of Polish Jewry—R. Solomon Luria. [ . . . ] This great rabbi was one of those unique individuals, one of those few men of virtue that not every…
A dialogue in the land of the living between our teacher, R. Moses Maimonides, the Spaniard, and our Teacher Moses, son of Menaḥem [Mendelssohn] of Dessau, and an anonymous third person.On the day of…
A sealed Torah was given to us; it is doubtless a Torah of Truth but it is disguised. Every day the Holy One, blessed be He, renews those who study it for its own sake and they find a new taste in it…
In this way, in addition, the statement in the Talmudic chapter Ha-ro’eh (Berakhot 56) can be explicated: “There are three types of peace—a river, a bird and a cooking…
Are we who are in this exile the people of Israel, that is, the worshipers of the God of Israel . . . essentially . . . or in . . . name only? . . . For it seems to me that we are not the people of…
Rabbi Yose said: I was once traveling on a road, and I entered one of the ruins of Jerusalem to pray. Elijah [the prophet], who is remembered for good, came and waited for me at the entrance [of the…
1. We have now obtained a preliminary articulation of reason and religion; we turn now to the sources of Judaism, out of which the religion of reason should be derived. We ought…