17
I can't speak for the Jewish community generally, but I, for one, do support the use of "Jew" in non-anti-Semitic contexts, consistent with my experience that this is, in fact, a standard use of the term to which Jews do not take offense and my general aversion to unjustified taboos.
I have been an English-speaking observant Jew for over three decades now, ...
16
My sister made this chart. It is kind of a condensed version of the hebrew one:
And here's a version with the titles transliterated, instead of translated:
13
An online translation can be found here.
12
This story is told in Talmud Menachos (44a) about one of R' Chiya's students. The story ends up with them both doing teshuva and subsequently marrying each other.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/530129/jewish/In-the-Words-of-the-Sages.htm
11
Usually if English-speaking Jews want a translation of the Jewish Bible they'll use a Jewish translation.
As for exposure to the other part of "the Bible", i.e. the New Testament, my guess is some Jews who believe in extra exposure will have read bits of it in a survey course or the like.
There's a huge range of degrees to which Jews are exposed to general ...
11
Wikipedia. As described there, Neusner has been criticized by the following scholars in his field of study:
[Shaye J. D. Cohen, "Jacob Neusner, Mishnah and Counter-Rabbinics,"
Conservative Judaism, Vol.37(1) Fall 1983 p. 48-63]
[Craig A. Evans, "Mishna and Messiah 'In Context'," Journal of
Biblical Literature, (JBL), 112/2 1993, p. 267-289]
[...
10
The term "pharisaical" is offensive to many Jews (me included) because it denigrates some of our most respected rabbis.
When Jews think of Pharisees, they think of the sect at the end of the Second Temple period (circa 0 CE) that became the basis for rabbinic Judaism. This group could be contrasted with other parties of the day such as Zealots (who wanted a ...
10
It is inexact to say that the Pharisees were a "small sect". Most common Jews followed the teachings of the rabbinic Pharisees, as opposed to those of other sects like Sadducees (see Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews 8:10:5,6). Modern talmudic/rabbinic Jews (including most frequent users of this site) consider themselves as following in the tradition of the ...
9
There are several, sometimes overlapping families of terms in play:
Israel
This name was given to Abraham's grandson, Jacob, by God and means "God prevails" or "God fights". There's some disagreement over which meaning is accurate, but the source is from this passage in the Torah:
And he said unto him: 'What is thy name?' And he said: 'Jacob.' And he ...
9
Like many Anglicized versions of biblical names, the name Balaam comes through the Greek language of the Septuagint, which renders בלעם as βαλααμ.
The reason the Septuagint spells it so differently from the Hebrew MT may either be due to limitations of the Greek language to accurately represent Hebrew, changes in the way Greek and/or Hebrew vowels were ...
9
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. The term refers to both the building and the institution. You'll also hear the Yiddish word shul, which is actually derived from "school" but has come to mean "synagogue".
Some liberal Jews also use the word "temple" to refer to a synagogue. Usually it's used as a semi-proper noun, e.g. "are you going to temple ...
8
This is a matter of the English language. I found this site which goes through some of the 'rules'. http://www.teachingcollegeenglish.com/2004/02/04/capitalizing-god/
In essennce, a capital first letter implies a 'proper noun', it also implies a bit of 'the one and only'. Capitalizing the word 'He' means 'that "He" which we all know, the one and only.. ...
8
"Jew" does not need to be rehabilitated. It is perfectly normal for Jews to use the word, and I find it quite jarring when I hear other words used instead. The fact that some antisemitic websites use the word in a derogatory sense is irrelevant to the fact that it is our name.
However, as Isaac noted, when it is used as an adjective, instead of "Jewish", it ...
8
Do English-speaking Jews read the Bible in English, or is that too Christian for them?
First, English is not a Christian language. If anything, it's a pagan language, but really it's just a language. There are many translations of the Bible into English. Most are explicitly Christian. A handful are scholarly works (e.g., Everett Fox's translation). ...
8
Since you said Tanach, I'm going to only include full Tanach translations here and ignore the various translations which only include the Torah.
These are all the complete Tanach translations I know about, and I have reason to believe this is a fairly comprehensive list.
The Jerusalem Bible, by Professor Harold Fisch, Koren. 1950s-ish
The living Torah/The ...
8
The challenge is that there are different ways to pronounce Hebrew. Ashkenazim, Sefaradim, Teimanim, etc. all pronounce words differently.
There is a very interesting project called OpenSiddur which developed an open source tool to build your own siddur. As part of this they have incorporated eight(!) different transliteration schemes
Rules of ...
7
As stated, Israelite is a anglicized version of a word meaning "of the nation of Israel" which referred to people in biblical and post-biblical times. Once the kingdom split after the reign of Solomon, that term which would have applied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, would not apply to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The name "Judah" (transliterated ...
7
It seems in your example that the "Comp." comes before the verse and that it means "compared to."
7
There's a translation of Machane Yisrael into English published as English-only (the original Hebrew is not included). It's Machaneh Yisrael (I mean, that's how they spell the title) and the copyright page reads:
Authored by
Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohen Zt"l
The Chofetz Chaim
Translated by
Machon MEMEY
413 Ashley Ave. • Lakewood, NJ 08701
(...
7
Daf Yomi Online by Eliyahu Fink. Around 20 minutes a Daf and yet clear and concise.This can be found on iTunes for free.
Here's the: Or you can just search for it on itunes.
Or here :
He also has a YouTube channel, which may be useful if you have connectivity issues with his website.
Each Daf is about 20 minutes, on average, but pretty understandable. ...
7
The names of Hashem which may not be erased are listed in Shulchan Oruch Yoreh Daioh 276 (9).
Hashem is not one of them and so the hyphenated ("Hash-m") seems unnecessary.
7
I have learned with both the Koren and the Artscroll. I actually switched to the Koren Steinsaltz. I have been using it everyday to learn daf yomi for 2 years. It really depends what your looking for if one is better than the other. As far as explanation, I would not label Koren a review Gemorah. While Artscroll is known for it's explanation, Koren has a lot ...
7
If you're interested in buying meforshim individually (in which case they will come with many more editorial and elucidation notes), here's a few:
Artscroll Rashi
Metsudah Sifsei Chachamim
Artscroll Ramban
Artscroll Seforno
Artscroll Baal HaTurim
Menucha Publishers Kli Yakar on Bereishis and Shemos
Urim Ohr HaChaim
I didn't shop around for which ...
7
It took several years from the OP but I am pleased to announce that Sefaria has posted most of the original-by-Señor-Yosef-Karo Shulchan Aruch in English: https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Halakhah/Shulchan%20Arukh?lang=bi
7
Berachot 13a
ת"ר ק"ש ככתבה דברי רבי וחכ"א בכל לשון מ"ט דרבי אמר קרא והיו בהוייתן
יהו ורבנן מאי טעמייהו אמר קרא שמע בכל לשון שאתה שומע ולרבי נמי הא כתיב
שמע ההוא מבעי ליה השמע לאזניך מה שאתה מוציא מפיך
Our Rabbis taught: The Shema’ must be recited as it is written. So
Rabbi. The Sages, however, say that it may be recited in any language.
What ...
6
The shiurim of R' Moshe Meir Weiss are very concise. Many are 15-30 minutes, though some run quite a bit longer (depending on the complexity, I guess).
10 minutes sounds like a completely unreasonable (and incomprehensible) speed. It might be useful for review purposes, but that's about it.
6
In the Mishpacha magazine, issue 455, 7 Iyar 5773, (April 17, 2013), Mrs. Blima Silverman of Toronto, Ontario, writes (in a letter to the editor), "In your February 20 edition the song, 'Big Gedalia Goomber' was attributed to yet another person who did not write it." She writes further, "The song (both music and lyrics) was composed by my husband, Rabbi ...
6
Look at the introduction of the מאירי to each masechta, where he breaks down the topics of the masechta in general as well as perek by perek.
(He also does that in a more perek-specific manner at the beginning of each perek.)
While not usually online, the Hebrewbooks website has the בית הבחירה -- just search for "בית הבחירה."
Here is an example of an ...
6
The Soncino has an introduction to a) The Talmud, b) Each Order, c) Each Tractate.
You can see most of them here: http://halakhah.com/
6
As Noach mi Frankfurt said in a comment, there are four English translations: Soncino, Neusner, Artscroll, and Koren/Steinsaltz, and Kfir Shlomo noted a fifth edited by A. Zvi Ehrman. I've worked with three of them; I don't know Neusner or Ehrman. Based on my experience, for a beginner I recommend the Koren/Steinsaltz, accompanied by a study partner or, ...
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