Rabbi David Sedley

A repository of written, audio and video Torah classes given by Rabbi David Sedley

Category: custom

  • Schlissel Challah (Key Challah)

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    Some have a custom to bake challah with a key inside it (or challah in the shape of a key) the Shabbat following Pesach. This has never been my custom (or my family’s custom) nor have i ever lived in a community where the custom was widespread. Nevertheless, with the internet (and particularly facebook) minhagim… Read more

  • I didn’t find it

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    I was taken in by historical revisionism. I thought the Bartenura was an early source for the custom of bonfires on Lag B’Omer (and I know I said I wouldn’t talk about bonfires any more, but this is about the dangers of revisionism and how stupid I am).I even cited the Bartenura correctly, that he… Read more

  • I found it

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    I found it! I found a source for lighting fires on Lag B’Omer that goes back earlier than a few decades.Rabbi Ovadiah Bartenura travelled to Israel and wrote letters to his brother back in Spain. These are published as Darkei Tzion, and are available online at HebrewBooks.org. If you look on page 17b (which is… Read more

  • This is not Jewish!

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    Look at these photographs that kumah took last night! These bonfires are several stories high. And to place a kid on top of one of them to show how high it is! What is going on? In Scotland, on the top of Calton Hill in Edinburgh, they do a similar thing (although they also paint… Read more