Questions tagged [history]
Questions related to how something was in the past, and how it's developed since then.
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What is the meaning of this painting?
I am in possession of this mysterious painting with Hebrew characters, but I do not know what words mean. I suspect that they may provide a clue to what is being represented in each of the painted ...
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Where does the custom of staying up all night on Shabbat originate from?
I heard there were some Tzadikim who would stay up all night on Shabbat where did this custom originate from?
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Igros Moshe to R' Shlomo Calerbach
In this video R' Shlomo Calerbach claims there is a teshuva to him in Igros Moshe.
Please help me find it.
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Date rebuilding Jerusalem appeared in birkas hamazon and me'en shalosh?
Do the references to rebuilding Jerusalem indicate when the birkas hamazon and me'en shalosh were first written, or were these references added at some point to existing brachot?
Do we know when the ...
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What is the oldest manuscript of Torah Shebaal Peh?
We don't have (and more's the pity!) R' Yehudah Hanassi's autograph copy of the Mishnah (well, okay, it's a controversial issue whether he actually wrote it or only arranged it orally), or Ravina and ...
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Authenticity and authority of Oral tradition
Is there a methodology used in Judaism to authenticate traditions (that it orginated from person to whom it is attributed) and deem it halacha or a correct position? For example, Muslims have what ...
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How are pre-creation >4000 BCE human civilization and pre-flood >2300 BCE civilizations that continued reconciled with Judaism?
How does human history fit in with the Torah's timeline? (This is not about why the universe and Earth look so old.)
There is extensive evidence of a human population and human civilizations from ...
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Which Jewish Groups Don't Believe in Resurrection of the Dead? [closed]
The Sadducees denied a coming resurrection of the dead, since they accepted only the written Torah as scripture. However, their movement went extinct in the early first millenium. After them, who was ...
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Where to Find Original Manuscripts Of Mishne Torah
I have a couple versions of books from Mishne Torah: some of them are from Mishne Torah HaRav Kook edition, and the other book I have is Mishne Torah Hashalem Edition and it says there that it is ...
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Which famous Rabbi had lifelong stomach pain?
I recently heard a shiur that quoted a famous rabbi (I think an Acharon) who talked about having stomach pain every day of his life, and studying torah was the only thing that gave him any joy. Does ...
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When and why did the black velvet yarmulke become the standard for some communities?
Ashkenazi yarmulkes from around 200 years ago closely resemble the Yerushalmi style - white knitted with a tassel on top. Today, the vast majority of Chasidim and Yeshivish Jews seem to wear black ...
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How does the existence of Himyarite Kingdom (a Jewish state that formed after the exile) impact the formation of a future Jewish messianic state?
According to the Wikipedia page on this topic, since the reign of Abikarib Asʿad (c. 384-433 CE), Judaism was adopted as the de facto state religion of the Himyarite Kingdom. It seems that Judaism ...
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Can someone point to some pre Holocaust (the older the better) Sefarim that address antisemitism in depth?
Considering all the Jew hatred experienced in every generation from persecution & exile to horrors like Hadrian’s Decrees, the crusades, blood libels, Inquisitions, & pogroms etc one would ...
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Did Adam establish a justice system?
One of the mitzvot given to Adam was to establish laws and courts.
Was Adam successful in setting up a working justice system, and if so, do we know any practical details of how it operated and/or for ...
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Are there two or three Rabbi Rashash?
How many Rabbi's are there that are named "Rashash"? I can't seem to find any sources that speak of another rashash, besides the ones mentioned below. I was told that there was one that ...
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Is there any evidence that Chazal knew what caused eclipses?
Many ancient cultures believed that eclipses are caused by things other than syzygy. The Egyptians had Apophis. The Hindus had Rahu. (The interested reader can see more here.)
In light (ha) of the ...
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The Yetziat Mitrazyim Path
I know there are many opinions on Yitziat Mitzraim. The path taken through the sea and how/where they went.
Is there a sefer/website that shows (picture or text) the different shitas? I am hoping for ...
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What were the Nephilim?
Inspired by this question on Biblical Hermeneutics.
What were the Nephilim mentioned in Bereishis and in Bamidbar?
Bereishis 6:1-4
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after ...
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Was the Hebrew Alphabet also given with the Tablets and Law?
My research for my answer to Which alphabet were the original Torah scrolls in? gave me an idea--Since the Early Alphabetic alphabet is also called Sinaitic, and the timing seems about right, maybe ...
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What Is the "Standard" Shulchan Aruch Page Based On? How Many Dapim Are There?
There are many editions of the Shulchan Aruch and they do not all follow the same pagination. However, many editions I have seen call themselves "tzurat hadaf" and appear to have a similar ...
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What were Bar Kochba's sins?
In his answer to the question Is there any evidence that Rabbi Akiva's students fought with Bar Kochba, Jake cites Yerushalmi Taanit Taanis 4:5 and Medrash Rabba Eicha 2:4 as sources for the position ...
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The Maharsha accusing Rav Pappa!
The Gemara Shabbos 140b states the following..
וְאָמַר רַב פָּפָּא: הַאי מַאן דְּאֶפְשָׁר לְמִישְׁתֵּי שִׁיכְרָא וְשָׁתֵי חַמְרָא — עוֹבֵר מִשּׁוּם ״בַּל תַּשְׁחִית״. וְלָאו מִילְּתָא הִיא — ״בַּל ...
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Wonder Child of Jerusalem
I grew up hearing about the story of a wonder child in Jerusalem that was born knowing כל התורה כולה. The Gedolim of that era explained that he didn't receive the flick from the angel at birth to make ...
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Are there any female kabbalists?
Are there currently or have there been historically orthodox female kabbalists? If not is this a quirk of history or is there a specific reason?
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Sabbateanism and Rav Yonasan Eibshitz
Is there any real substantial evidence that Rav Yonasan Eibshitz was a Sabbatean? On what basis did Rav Yaakov Emden hound him?
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Is there any mention to someone wearing tefillin in Tanach? [duplicate]
Aside from the passages in Shmah, are there any accounts discussing or of Jews wearing tefillin in tanach?
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History of Creation Ex Nihilo
Is it known whether creation from nothing has always been the mainstream jewish belief (as far back as is possible to tell)? Were there notable groups within Judaism that, instead of going with the ex ...
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Rav Moshe's Psak on Fertility Treatments
I recently read an interview with Rav Dovid Feinstein and he referenced a two year period of Rav Moshe's life that were troubling due to backlash he received following a controversial psak regarding ...
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Where does "probeh" come from?
Every time recently that I've heard of an Orthodox congregation conducting a search for a rabbi, the stage at which the rabbi visits the community for a Shabbat and auditions for the position is ...
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Are there accounts detailing personal encounters with the Rambam and referring to his personality?
The Rambam, at least in his writing, is often forthright, reassured and direct. It seems to me that sometimes the Rambam can be construed as disparaging of certain groups of people. For example (...
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Why did God do nothing against the Romans that desecrated the Temple?
When good guy made a mistake, like Uzzah trying to fix the ark, God killed him (see II Samuel 6:6).
However, Uzzah does not seem that evil. I mean, the ark stumbled and he just tried to help.
Then, ...
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Is "Reason to Believe" correct that the Jewish Nation had no outstanding achievements?
R Gottlieb in his book called Reason to Believe claims that the UNEXPECTED survival of the Jews is a reason to believe in a Supernatural Being that cares about the Jews, has abilities to affect the ...
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Do the non-traditional branches of Judaism claim to be rejecting the original foundations and replacing it with something superior?
R Dovid Gottlieb made the following claim to me:
"The non-traditional branches (Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist) of Judaism claim to be rejecting the original foundations and replacing ...
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If the ENTIRE Egyptian army drowned, why didn't the Babylonians/Hittites invade Egypt?
The following is an excerpt of a critique on "Reason to Believe":
Critic: Under these conditions, were the Ten Plagues and a total crush of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea waters to happen,...
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When did The Talmud first become available to the readers as a written document?
What was the probable earliest time, when some Jewish readers could get a hold of a document that contains any material that belong to the material that is found in Talmud Sanhedrin?
What was the ...
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Halachot of Shul Mechitzot
What are some good books, articles, websites, or seforim for learning about the Halachot of constructing and maintaining a Shul Mechitza (the barrier between the men and women sections)?
Issues ...
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Which Jewish theologians won't cite Jewish survival as evidence of miracles?
Which Jewish theologians (defined below) disagree with the following conclusion:
"Jewish survival can't be [reasonably] explained in a natural way (and instead needs to be explained as a miracle)...
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Rambam and R' Yehuda Halevi
Is there any evidence that Rambam was familiar with the writings of R' Yehuda Halevi? The more concrete the better.
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Origins of Ashkenazi Community
I saw a comment by mevaqesh:
To summarize the thesis set forth by R. Dr. Soloveitchik and in
collected Essays vol. II and elaborated on in vol. III, the Ashkenazic
mesorah was founded by a group of ...
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Preservation of the text
I read in an article that "rabbinic literature" states there was a preserved copy of a guarded text in the second temple, I was hoping someone could let me know where I can find this text, ...
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Babylonian Niqqud in Yemen
I just read in Rav Kapach's introduction to his edition of Rav Saadiah Gaon's translation and commentary on Sefer Daniel that his grandfather had a manuscript of Rav Saadiah Gaon's translation which ...
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History of Hashkeim vs. Bo
I learned in this book that in some ancient traditions, they started a new parsha at Hashkeim (barad) instead of at Bo (arbeh), as I'm used to. (This is a variation of the minhag to read the whole ...
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Who were the original users of Ktav Ashuri?
According to one opinion found in the Talmud Sanhedrin 22a ktav ashuri was brought up from the first exile, assumedly adopted from Babylonian sources.
Who exactly was using this alphabet? Do we have ...
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What changed in the later First Temple period that increased interaction with further kingdoms?
If you read the Book of Kings, the nations with which Israel (or later, Judah and Israel) was always either warring or allying themselves are basically its neighbors: Egypt, Lebanon ("Tyre"),...
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To what extent would the kings of Israel and Judah have been involved in the upbringing and instruction of their children?
To what extent would the kings of Israel and Judah have been involved in the upbringing and instruction of their children? Are there any Biblical references that can help determine this?
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Examples of prophecies that didn't and cannot come to pass?
Are there any examples of prophecies recorded by established Jewish prophets in Tanach which were about a specific time and/or a specific people and did not come to pass, and subsequently cannot come ...
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Has anyone declared a time of oppression regarding the four Temple fasts?
The Sha'ar haTziyun (OC 550 sk 9) speculates if in his day (~1900 CE) there was enough oppression of the Jews to warrant declaring the fasts of 10 Tevet, 17 Tammuz and 3 Tishrei into full fledged ...
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Is it true that Simeon ben Shetach was summoned to a diplomatic meeting between Parthians and King Alexander Jannaeus by Queen Salome Alexandra?
There is a story on wikipedia for Simeon ben Shetach at this link.. After the civil war between the Pharisees and King Alexander Jannaeus the Judeans are meeting with Parthians. The Parthians asked ...
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Where does the tune for birkat hamazon come from?
It's hard to describe who's tune this is and I can only refer to it as the 'commonly used' or 'popular' tune for birkat hamazon. It seems like it is compiled of many unrelated tunes. At times there ...
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When and by whom were the Piyutim of Channukah written?
There are communities that recite special prayers on Shabbos Channukah they begin with אודך כי אנפת ותשוב. Do we know who wrote these and when?
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