Volume 10 Number 1
Produced: Mon Nov 15 23:52:06 1993
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
JEWISH STUDIES JUDAICA eJOURNAL - Contents: Issue 1.007
[Avi Hyman]
Rashi's Torah
[Howard Reich]
Roots: Geneological Program (3)
[Chaim R. Dworkin, Gordon Berkley, Larry Weisberg]
Translated books on Kabbalah/Mysticism
[Yisroel Engel]
Yud & Vav variations w.r.t. Hidden Codes
[Robert Light]
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From: <AJHYMAN@...> (Avi Hyman)
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 93 13:48:09 -0500
Subject: JEWISH STUDIES JUDAICA eJOURNAL - Contents: Issue 1.007
Early next week we will be mailing out issue 1.007 of JEWISH STUDIES
JUDAICA eJOURNAL. To subscribe for free before the mailing, please send
the message
SUBSCRIBE JEWSTUDIES <your name>
to: <listserv@...>
or
SUBSCRIBE H-JUDAIC <your name>
to: <listserv@...>
(both list serv as mailing points for the journal).
Here is the table of contents for issue 1.007 JSJeJ (some minor additions
may be made):
ARTICLES, NOTES, LETTERS, etc.
-GERMAN-JEWISH IMMIGRATION
& SYNAGOGUE AFFILIATION
-ETHIOPIAN JEWS
-DARK-SKINNED JEWS
-THOMAS DEKKER's The Wonderful Year
-WISTRICH's The Jews of Vienna
-HEBRAICA & JUDAICA for sale
ACADEMIC SERVICES, etc.
-JUDAISME-1: French Jewish electronic source
-HOLOCAUS: electronic Holocaust source
-CONTENTS: Religious Studies Publications Journal
-JUDAICA REFERENCE SOURCES (special offer)
CONFERENCES, etc.
-SNTN SEMINAR: Early Jewish Writings
-QUMRAN RESEARCH
-PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR on CHRISTIAN ORIGINS
-CARG PROGRAM (SBL/AAR/ASOR)
-KLUTZNICK SYMPOSIUM:
Pilgrims & Travelers to the Holy Land
EMPLOYMENT, etc.
-JEWISH STUDIES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
-JUDAICA POSITION
-JUDAIC STUDIES
-MIDDLE EAST STUDIES
-HEBREW LANGUAGE & CULTURE
-LATE ANTIQUITY JUDAISM
-RABBINIC RELIGIOUS & LITERATURE
all items welcome,
Avi Jacob Hyman - editor JSJeJ
<jewstudies@...>
<h-judaic@...>
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From: Howard Reich <71630.3433@...>
Date: 10 Nov 93 16:35:39 EST
Subject: Rashi's Torah
I was so certain that Gedaliah Friedenberg's "Rashi's Torah posul?"
in V9N87 would intrigue an old friend of mine from yeshiva in Toronto,
Alex Lebowitz, that I faxed it to him.
Alex found reference to the Rashi in a Sefer called Mischal
L'Dovid, which is a commentary on Rashi by Rabbi Dovid Pardo. Rabbi
Pardo writes that after carefully studying the Medrash (Medrash Rabbo,
61:4) upon which Rashi's comment is based, he understands its meaning to
be as follows. This is the only instance in the Torah in which the word
Pilagshim is Molei D'Molei, i.e., spelled with _two_ Yods (a fact which
Alex confirmed using his CD-ROM). Thus, when Rashi says that the word
Pilagshim is Chaser, he means all _other_ instances in the Torah. Here,
the extra Yods beg the homiletic interpretation derived by breaking the
word up into three parts namely, Pi Lagesh Yam, which is understood as
an allusion to Hagar because it was her mouth that opened up in prayer
so that water was accorded to her in the desert by means of finding a
well. This then is Rashi's proof that Hagar and Ketura are one and the
same.
Parenthetically in response to Arthur Roth's related posting in
V9N91, Alex also pointed out that the Eitz Yosef (a commentary at the
bottom of the Medrash Rabbo) says that when it comes to questions of
Malei V'Chaser (i.e., "full" and/or "missing" with respect to a vav or a
yud when the vowels cholam or chirik appear), the Medroshim cannot be
relied upon if they contradict the way it is written in our actual text.
In my limited thinking, I found that rather astounding. I would expect
that we would conclude that our text is wrong, and that the Medroshim
must have been right. Is anybody else surprised by this, or is my
Chochmos Chitzonios showing?
Howard
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From: Chaim R. Dworkin <chaim@...>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 00:18:28 -0500
Subject: Re: Roots: Geneological Program
> "Prof. Aryeh Frimer" writes:
> > I am intersted in a program that will help me draw up a geneological
> > tree of my family which unfortunately only goes back in some parts for 6
> > generations -to be used with an IBM 386. I've heard that such
> > programs are available. Do they have hebrew support? What are the prices
> > and advantages or disadvantages of each program. In what form does the
> > output appear?
There are several programs for keeping track of geneologies. The one
which I've heard the most praise for is Brothers Keeper, which is
available on the SimTel archives at oak.oakland.edu in the
pub/msdos/geneology directory in one or two files starting with the
letters bk. It is a modertely comprehensive program which does not fill
my personal needs but is very popular among others in geneology.
The reason it doesn't fill my needs is because the database fields are
set and it is difficult, although possible, to change them. I also need
some of my fields to be long text entries and BK doesn't do that; its
field size is not changable. Also BK has one field for Baptism date
which is not appropriate for me. It's a date field which cannot be
changed although the word "Baptism" can be changed easily to Bar Mitzvah
or some such.
Chaim R. Dworkin
<chaim@...>
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From: Gordon Berkley <gordonb@...>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 03:02:03 -0500
Subject: Re: Roots: Geneological Program
Hi Aryeh.
I recently pulled the shareware program Brothers Keeper from the 'net.
It can be found in several archives. The copy I pulled was in:
oak.oakland.edu:/pub/msdos/genealogy/
BK51FD1.ZIP B 696014 930719 My Brother's Keeper Genealogy SW 7-93, 1 of 3
BK51FD2.ZIP B 639154 930719 My Brother's Keeper Genealogy SW 7-93, 2 of 3
BK51FD3.ZIP B 508580 930719 My Brother's Keeper Genealogy SW 7-93, 3 of 3
I believe that these are aleady obsolete. (it has been upgraded from FD -> FP)
I have been entering my family tree, and have found it very easy to use.
Do be sure, however, to read the Users Guide BEFORE you start. While
the program itself is rather self-obvious, there are some subtleties
concerning genealogy that are not.
It does NOT accept Hebrew text -- at least as far as I can tell --
however it allows you to customize certain "standard" fields. For
example, I changed the field "Occupation" to be "Hebrew Name" which I
then enter in english transliteration. Not the greatest, but...
One additional advantage, is that BK allows you to "export" your
database into a standard format file which Beit HaTfutzot (?) accepts
into their records! This theoretically allows you to cross reference
into their files...
Regards,
[ Gordon D. Berkley INTERNET: <gordonb@...> POST: cgb001 ]
[ PHONE: +972 (3) 565-8727 FAX: +972 (3) 565-8754 (UTC+3) ]
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From: Larry Weisberg <WEISBERG@...>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 10:31:21 IDT
Subject: Roots: Geneological Program
Below is some information that I pulled off of a Bulletin board
a while ago:
Up to date information on many genealogical programs can be had
from "Genealogical Computing" magazine now published by:
Ancestry,
P.O. Box 476, Salt Lake
City, Utah 84110. 1-800-531-1790
The program for the PC with definitively the best value for the dollar is
the 'Personal Ancestral File' (PAF). "X" says, "I have Release 2.2 of it
and find it excellent for my purposes of keeping a family of currently short
of 1000 names in the database. PAF is orderable by phone 1-800-537-5950 (they
take credit cards: USD 35 + 2 order charge) or by mail from
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Salt Lake Distribution Center
1999 West 1700 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84104
PAF for the PC / PS/2 needs DOS 2.0 or higher, 512K memory and either
2 disk drives or one disk drive and a hard disk.
It is also available for the Macintosh with min 512K and for the
Apple II (Apple DOS 3.3 and 80-column board). Same price.
[The above are the Mormons, and as many know they have an intense, and
religious, interest in geneology issues. That reputadly have the largest
geneology database in the world. I do not know if there are any Halakhic
issues involved in purchasing such a program from them. Any thoughts?
Mod.]
There are other programs (also shareware ones) with varying
capabilities. Whatever you chose, ask if the program supports the
GEDCOM standard, an universal genealogic data interchange format. With
GEDCOM you can upgrade to a different program or exchange data with
others. PAF supports this standard, they invented it !
There is a very active bulletin board on Prodigy (sorry, only accessible
in the U.S.).
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From: <yengel@...> (Yisroel Engel)
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 93 05:10:40 -0500
Subject: Translated books on Kabbalah/Mysticism
I am familiar with some excellent works on Kabbalah (R. Aryeh Kaplan
A"H, etc.) Is anyone familiar (maybe in Israel) if anyone translated
Shaar Hagilgulim, Sefer Hagilgulim,etc. or any helpful list.
Thanks. Yisroel Engel <yengel@...>
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From: Robert Light <76346.724@...>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 14:20:41 -0500
Subject: Yud & Vav variations w.r.t. Hidden Codes
The recent interchange on missing/additional yud's and vav's was very
interesting. If it is true there were various strains of texts which
varied slightly in pre-Ezra sifrei Torahs then...
How does this affect the hidden codes work... all the research I have
seen on the subject shows that a missing letter wipes out large portions
(if not all) of the apparent codes.
- Robert Light
internet: <robertlight@...>
[This question, in slightly different language was asked by several list
members. My memory of some of the work that has been described in the
past would indicate that a few missing letters over a large text portion
only slightly changes the kind of effects they see, not wiping out large
portions. If anyone on the list has some definite knowledge, I would
appreciate if they could reply. I will remind the list that previous
discussions about the the Code research per se, has not been fruitfull.
The main sticking point was the inavailability to the general public of
the articles that have been submitted to scholarly journals. If the
articles have been published, or if preprints are now readily available,
that information would be greatly appreciated. Mod.]
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End of Volume 10 Issue 1
