16 February 2006

The Yerushalmi is In My Apartment (Yes, in its entirety)

Unlike my first trip to the YU seforim sale, I successfully purchased a set of the Yerushalmi (yay!). In addition to that, I got myself the acronym book (אוצר ראשי תיבות by אשכנזי and ירדן), in addition to two books that I may find myself referencing next year in English (we have a suggested reading list for next year, but most of the works are in Hebrew): Goldberg's "Mourning in Halachah" and Forst's two volume "The Laws of Niddah" (if you can't yet tell, we're doing niddah (menstrual impurity (I refuse to call it טהרת המשפחה, as per ITLOTW (who says there, "I refuse to call it taharat hamishpacha...you are being purified to a limited extent, not your family, they are not dipping in any mikvahs or counting any days."))) and avelut (mourning)).
I wonder when I will return to the Seforim Sale and what I will allow myself to procure....
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nu? So which Yerushalmi did you buy this time?

Also note that Furst's Laws of Nidda is complete in two volumes.

Drew Kaplan said...

Anonymous,
I did, in fact, already note that there are two volumes of Furst's work (Without editing the post, too).

Anonymous said...

Yep - I missed that.

So, which Yerushalmi? Myself, I think I'm waiting for the soon to be released Oz v'Hadar version. The Vilna tzuras hadaf isn't as invioable as that of the Bavli and Artscroll's Yerushalmi uses Oz V'Hadar's modified tzuras hadaf which as a result I expect to become the somewhat defacto standard.

Drew Kaplan said...

The Yerushalmi I got was printed by Brokhmans

Anonymous said...

Drew, the phrase Taharat Hamishpacha is an abbreviation of Taharat Chayei Mishpacha, purity of family life, Chayei Mishpacha being a Jewish euphemism for intimate relations between a husband and wife. The phrase Hilchot Niddah does not convey the spiritual importance of these laws, or the positive effect that they have on Jewish marriage.
Somehow, talking about the laws of the dripping women (Niddahm from the verb Davah) or the laws of the banished women (niddah from the term Nidui) doesn't sound so uplifting as talking about the laws that sanctify sexual relations between husband and wife.

If you let yourself get bogged down in the silly feminist line, you can easily start buying the nonsense that TH is just another way that the patriarchy keeps women down, instead of seeing it in its holiness and beauty. Yes, these laws do sanctify the entire family!

Drew Kaplan said...

Reb Yochanan,
Thank you - I hadn't known that there was a fuller expression of the term.
silly feminist line - I hope you mean that it's a line that feminists use which is silly as opposed to feminists being silly.
As to the more mundane sense of the term hilkhot niddah, I imagine it will be difficult to see beyond it when learning the laws about it in order to see the larger philosophical sense of family sanctity.

Anonymous said...

silly feminist line - I hope you mean that it's a line that feminists use which is silly as opposed to feminists being silly.
To the extent that feminism empowers women to be strong productive members of the Jewish community, it is the opposite fo silly. To the extent that it encourages people to throw the baby out with the bathwater, it is very, very silly.
I imagine it will be difficult to see beyond it when learning the laws about it in order to see the larger philosophical sense of family sanctity.
This is precisely why language is so important. If you decide to reject the Jewish tradition of euphemism, because of the some imagined value of bluntness, you lose the ability to find the holiness in the Halachot that you are learning. The tradition of euphemism allows us to rise above the mundanity of the topic that we are studying and find the Nosain Hatorah in the Halacha.
If you are not able to find the holiness in these Halachot, I would remind you of the Gemara in Tanit 7A - if he merits, it can be for him as a potion of life, if he does not merit, it will become...

Anonymous said...

What the heck do you need a yerushalmi for??????????????????

Drew Kaplan said...

Anonymous,
I hat to break it to you, but the Yerushalmi is a very significant piece of rabbinic literature. Thus, I have it and use it. Plus, it's a lot easier to read through than online or using the Bar-Ilan responsa program (I don't say CD, as while the program does come on CD, I am signed up to Spertus' online stuff, which is clutch, as it costs only $35 a year to use, versus paying hundreds of dollars for the CD).