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7

This interesting research paper in the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Muslim world discusses the historical account of the debates and polmeics between muslims and Jews. I could find some debates which were based on Alī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā(d. 818) a prominent Muslim scholar, reportedly engaged in a public disputation with a Christian patriarch and a Jewish ...


7

Basically a member of any tribe could marry any other tribe; tribal identity is passed through the father. If Susan, an Asher-ite, marries Bob, a Levite, their children are Levites. (You'd probably still identify Susan herself as being from the tribe of Asher, but it doesn't affect that much. E.g. we're told that Samson's father was from Dan, but his mother ...


7

Sefer Hachiunuch doesn't list the reading/learning as its own commandment. Instead, part of his definition of the commandment for the king to write a Torah scroll, Commandment #494, includes "so that it will always be with him, and he'll read from it." He does not, however, specify how frequently or extensively the king is to read from it. He further ...


6

OK, I may have enough of an idea to offer an answer. I think the panel in the upper right is supposed to say כינור שפילט, like "harpist" or something in Yiddish. The upper middle seems to say something about a harp. The upper left says מאנדלן, Yiddish for almonds. I think the lower right might be א ליד, "a song." The lower middle says "baa..." I don't know ...


6

There are, perhaps, several factors to consider: In Chabad thought, the rebbe is more than just a leader, Torah teacher, spiritual guide, etc. All of these roles, and many more, are outgrowths and expressions of his being the נשמה כללית, the "all-encompassing soul" of the Jewish people (see Tanya, ch. 2). Now, of course, barring an explicit statement by ...


5

According to the historian Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam : In general, Muslim polemicists pay little attention to the relatively insignificant Jew. Insofar as they deign to discuss the superseded religions, they are far more concerned with the Christians who, as the bearers of a competing proselytizing religion and the masters of a rival ...


5

(I suspect this will get some downvotes or be seen as disrespectful by some. It's important to say nonetheless.) That's a million-dollar question. No, make that a billion-dollar question. It appears that as Rabbi Schneurson had no children there was no heir-apparent; in his last years after he suffered a stroke he was probably unable himself to choose a ...


4

We are told many times throughout the Torah and Tanach that we will be spread to the four corners of the Earth among the nations and that.... וּבַגּוֹיִם הָהֵם לֹא תַרְגִּיעַ, וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה מָנוֹחַ לְכַף-רַגְלֶךָ; וְנָתַן יְהוָה לְךָ שָׁם לֵב רַגָּז, וְכִלְיוֹן עֵינַיִם וְדַאֲבוֹן נָפֶשׁ. And among these nations shalt thou have no repose, and ...


4

Here's a start. The historian Norman Roth, in his Daily Life of the Jews in the Middle Ages, writes about the role of women in Spain (as well as Ashkenazic lands) at that time. On pg. 54, he writes: ...in all Muslim lands, and in Christian as well as Muslim Spain, women had equality with men in all business transactions. This meant that they could ...


3

Seder Olam Rabbah 8 says the Jews left Sinai on 20 Iyar of Year 2 after the Exodus, traveled to Kibrot Hattaavah, spent 30 days there (because that's how long they ate the quail for Num 11:20), traveled to Chatzerot, spent 7 days there (because that's how long Miriam was expelled for Num 12:15), traveled to Midbar Paran, arriving on 28 Sivan or the same ...


3

According to this article, at Jewish Virtual Library, there were instances of polemical attacks between Jews and Muslims in a literary format, but no public disputations. The two main Islamic practitioners of such polemic are said there to have been Ibn Ḥazm and Samuel al-Maghribī, the second of whom had converted from Judaism. While the article does mention ...


3

See Brachos 13a (IIRC) that one is allowed to call him that (the Torah does). מתיב רבי יוסי בר אבין ואיתימא רבי יוסי בר זבידא אתה הוא ה' האלהים אשר בחרת באברם אמר ליה התם נביא הוא דקא מסדר לשבחיה דרחמנא מאי דהוה מעיקרא:‏ R. Jose b. Abin (or, as some say, R. Jose b. Zebida) cited in objection the following: Thou art the Lord, the God who didst ...


3

Taken from this blog post (emphasis mine) R. Eliezer Dunner, in his work Zichron Yosef Tzvi, offers a very novel reason for the celebration on Lag Ba-Omer. He says that we know that R. Akiva was a strong supporter of Bar Kochba. He suggests that R. Akiva students were soldiers in his army to fight the Romans and they died in this time period of Sefirah. ...


2

The students mentioned in yevamoth could not have died in the times of Bar-Kochba. Firstly the talmud speaks of students in his (R. Akiba's) youth and students in his old age - so there had to be a respectable amount of time between the death of his first students and the studies with his latter students. Secondly, R. Akiba was arrested in tishre after the ...


2

Cyrus the Great, reigning 559 BC–530 BC, conquered Babylon in 538 BC and freed the Jews slightly thereafter. He issued some of the first declarations on human rights. While this snapshot does not cover the start of the religion, Cyrus the Great is a historical figure well documented in various cultures' archaeological records (and well worth reading about) ...


2

Shimon's answer alludes to a debate which got me interested to research more about the transcripts of the actual debate and after some research I found it in an academic paper as it appears in the translated form , the citation for this Journal paper is : A Shii-Jewish "Debate" (Munazara) in the Eighteenth Century By: Moreen, Vera B. | The Journal of the ...


1

I read this chapter http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/10.1163/ej.9789004173330.i-358.39 and I am not so fond of what he says. He states according to Ibn al-Qifti, from which most scholars quote the alleged apostacy, said that RaMbaM read the Quran and participated in the prescribed prayers during the period in which he acted ostensibly as a ...


1

The Zohar (commenting on Bereshit 7:11) says that technological advancement will start in the year 5600, as a precursor and preparation for the Messianic Era. Read about it here. The Zohar (I:117a) reads this verse as an allusion to the following: “After six hundred years of the sixth millennium (the year 5600, corresponding to the civil year of 1840) ...


1

The question seems to be bothered by the issue that archeological records show that people were around much more than 6000 years ago while the genealogy in the Bible would place Adam, the first man, more recently. There are many ways of addressing this. Just as the six days can be explained as not literally being six days, one can explain that the first ...


1

From the outset, the Rebbe was to be the seventh and final Lubavitcher Rebbe. It is an important part of Chabad theology. See here: However, by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn's reign there had been seven generations of Hasidic Rebbes who had followed the Ba'al Shem Tov, and six generations of Lubavitcher Rebbes. As early as 1926, Yosef Yitzchak ...


1

Rabbi Zirkind was commissioned to write R"T for Rav Feinstein. The Rebbe was told by R'Feinstein that his were missing from the old country and couldn't find a qualified pair to replace them, nor a sofer. The Rebbe said that if he could get him a pair of kosher R"T's would he were them. And so Rabbi Zirkind wrote for R'Feinstein. The mesora as per authentic ...



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