316) PATTERNS IN THE SUPERCOMMENTARIES ON RASHI:

 

b. Yevamot 63a.

INTRODUCTION:

Rashi’s commentaries on the Torah are well known. However, the commentaries on his commentaries - known as supercommentaries - are less known, even “wholly neglected”. These supercommentaries or Parshanei Rashi number in the dozens by conservative estimates and possibly even in the hundreds.[1]

In this article, based extensively in the research by Professor Eric Lawee[2] of Bar Illan University, we shall explore a sample of different supercommentaries on one single Rashi commentary on a verse in Genesis.

NOTE: The quotation from Rashi upon which this article is based may upset sensitive readers. The intention, however, is not to focus on the subject but rather on the patterns which emerge in the supercommentaries which deal with it.

 

315) A GLIMPSE INTO THE 18th CENTURY WORLD OF SEGULOT AND ‘COUNTER SEGULOT’:

 

 

One of Segulot disributed by R. Yonatan Eibeschuetz (1690-1764) 

INTRODUCTION:

We have dealt with the issue of Segulot (religious amulets) on a number of previous occasions, particularly in relation to the Emden-Eybeschuetz controversies (see links provided below).

In this article, based extensively on the research of Shai A. Alleson-Gerberg[1], we shall examine the strange world of Segulot which was rife within some quarters of rabbinic leadership during the eighteenth century.

 

314) THE DISCOVERY OF THE LOST SPANISH TALMUD:

 

A leaf from Seridei Bavli.

INTRODUCTION:

I have always been fascinated by the often incidental discovery of old important texts that are constantly being made in modern times. These include writings like those of Abulafia, for example, which Gershom Scholem happened to identify in Archives of the Bavarian State Library when he was writing his dissertation in 1919. There were also recent discoveries of the Meiri texts, as well as unpublished Rashi commentaries and other works and even the recovery of some of the more recent censored writing of Rav Kook.

In this article, we shall explore the accidental discovery of parts of the 500-year-old Spanish Talmud which was thought to have been lost forever.[1]

 

313) THE BEGINNINGS OF THE FINAL RITUALS:

 

Ma'avar Yabbok by R. Aaron Berechia of Modena (d.1639) - a book with prayers for the ill the deceased.

INTRODUCTION:

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries, new rituals and liturgy relating to sickness and dying were introduced to Judaism. In this article, based extensively on the research by Professor Avriel Bar-Levav[1], we will look at how these rituals were first innovated. The intention is not to dwell on uncomfortable matters but rather to show the mechanics of how customs are sometimes brought into Jewish practice from various sources.

 

1) “DYING BY THE BOOK”[2]:

Bar-Levav points out that:

 [a]lthough Jewish mourning rituals were already highly developed early in the rabbinic era, structure was not imparted to the deathbed setting itself until the early modern period.