Donate Books!

As is probably well known, there is a shortage of Judaic books in China. A request has been posted online and on bulletin boards in Jerusalem asking people to donate books to this worthy cause.

The long-awaited Talmudic Studies III (Mehkerei Talmud Gimel): Studies in Memory of Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, has appeared. So far I only have an offprint of one of the articles, but I can already give some description of the book.

First of all, a sad sign of how long the book spent in preparation is the number of contributors who have themselves passed away. Shraga Abramson, Meir Ayali, Moshe Beer, Yitzhak Dov Gilat, David Flusser, Shmuel Safrai and Israel Ta-Shma. Many of the articles in this collection have already been referenced in print (Simcha Emanuel's article on Hasside Ashkenaz and prayer, Shlomo Naeh's article on the art of memory, Menahem Kister's article on Avot de-Rabbi Nathan) and at least one has already been published in English translation. The largest contribution is Ya'akov Sussman's massive (about 130 pages) article on the oral transmission of Rabbinic texts. Buy it now!

Correction: A respected mentor pointed out to me that Sussman's piece, which was first slated for publication in Tarbiz in 1980, is 170 pages long.