Date: Wed, 5 Apr, 1989 18:30 IST From: Yechiel Greenbaum Subject: Tenth issue of newsletter To: 5 Apr 89 JUDAIC STUDIES #10 29 AdarII 49 BS"D Connecting geographically & otherwise disparate groups with a common interest in the study of Judaica. Edited by Y. Greenbaum CONTENTS 1) Progress 2) New Recipient 3) New Book 4) Events 5) Jerusalem Talmud 1) Progress Our distribution is growing steadily (just passed seventy in number and spread to a new continent). If there's a Judaic Studies person in your vicinity who isn't yet electrified, perhaps you can spare a bit of time to introduce said person to the keyboard. We are also seeking JS program information in electronic form. If your program publishes catalogs, course schedules, reading lists and so forth using a computer, or if the typesetter uses one, let us know. We'd like to collect them and post them. Your beloved editor (I mean, at least my mother beloves me) will be in the US in May, and in the UK by the beginning of June. If you want me to speak to people at your institution, let me know (and, if there's a significant amount of travel, help with expenses). 2) New Recipient Date: Fri, 31 Mar 89 00:51:56 pst From: jseidel%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu (Jonathan Seidel) Please place me on your On-line Newsletter list. From what I've seen its just what I'm looking for. I'm a doctoral student/teacher in Rabbinics and Ancient Judaism at U.C.Berkeley who is interested in sharing scholarly information, Torah and Computer Torah. Several friends in Berkeley have sent me the Newsletter and your efforts to make it a useful forum are noteworthy. Tell me how it works as well. Thanks Yechiel. B'shalom Jonathan Seidel Yechiel responds- It's been working pretty well, actually. Anyone can lend a hand by contributing information useful to a JS-type person (or by sending the letter to several friends). 3) New Book Actually, new information on an old book. After three years spent receiving its period binding, Dr. Elazar Hurvitz's discovery, plus his usual thorough detective work, are now available to the public. An undated spanish printing of the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, reconstructed from Genizah and binding fragments. The introduction provides a review of the literature dealing with different traditions of the text, as well as some excurses into incunabula and watermarks, not to mention the Aleppo Codex. The poor printing practices in this edition may indicate workers who closely followed the text, rather than "correcting" it. Available directly from Dr. Hurvitz, 136-44 72nd Av, Flushing, NY 11367, USA, for $275. 4) Events 10 Apr 20:00 Hebrew U History of the Jewish People Group Shmuel Ettinger Lecture Departmental Seminar Kehol and Kehilla in Poland in the 18th Century Prof. Gershon Hundert 12 Apr 20:00 Schocken Institute for Jewish Research (affiliate, JTS) 6 Balfour St., Jerusalem 92102 Early Liturgy of the Synagogue Dr. Stefan Reif 5) Jerusalem Talmud (My bibliographic leanings are probably going to be evident in this review) The afternoon began and ended with the recurring assertion that the early quotes of the JT do not come from sections which they had and we do not. On this theme, not only did Prof. Sussman speak in the beginning, but he made a surprise announcement at the end; he's found the manuscript from which the Ravyo seems to quote all his JT's. Prof. Boyarin mentioned that R' Saul Lieberman OBM often pointed to the m Noam haYerushalmi as an early example of viewing the JT without the preconceptions of the BT. Prof. Havlin discussed the phenomena of "creating" a tractate, without mentioning, to the best of my recollection, either a famous forgery or a reconstructed Medrash. Prof. Sokoloff introduced the new lexicon. A welcome feature is an index in the order of the sources which allows one to look up a word without having to discern its etymological structure. The definitions are in English. (I've always had a quixotic notion that everything written about e.g. Basque language and literature should be written in Basque. Thankfully a rare happenstance.) We're still awaiting LISTSERV...