1 Elul 5779

תפילה: סדר תפילות יום חול כמנהג אשכנז
Tefiloh: The Weekday Liturgy According to the Ashkenaz Tradition (Hebrew)
4rd edition
by Rav Hillel Hoffner and Rav Noach Hoffner
Haifa, 5779
112 pages

For individual or bulk orders, available from the authors, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We welcome contributions toward the publication of Tefilas Shabbos, which will include the Piyutim for Special Shabboses. When making your contribution, please specify that it is for this purpose.

18 Elul 5776

מחזור ליום הכיפורים: מסודר ומבואר: כמנהג אשכנז המובהק
Machzor for Yom Kippur: Arranged and Elucidated: According to the Ashkenaz Tradition (Hebrew)
by Rav Avraham Aumann
Beitar Ilit, 5776
395 pages

Available from the author, at 32/4 haRabi miNadvorna St., Beitar Ilit, phone +972-52-713-5863, e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or through representatives in many of the Ashkenaz communities and elsewhere:

• Bnei Brak: Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz, 3 Sorotzkin St., +972-3-570-0783
• Jerusalem: Friedman, 24/7 Tlalim St., Ramot 1, +972-52-761-1890
• Modiin Ilit: Aumann, 84 Netivot haMishpat St., Kiryat Sefer, +972-50-411-1740
• Haifa: Kehillas Zichron Yaakov, 3 Geula St., Hadar, +972-54-840-4179
• Beit Shemesh: Hoffner, 5/1 Nachal haBasor, Ramah 1, +972-58-766-2663
• Elad: Hoffner, 17 Rambam St., +972-3-909-0541
• Petach Tikva: Hoffner, 9/4 Rozovsky St., Ganei Hadar, +972-52-764-5213
• Rechasim: Stern, 10/16 haRav Mishkovsky Way, +972-58-324-4946

Table of Contents | Sample Pages

Second printing, Elul 5777:

• Corrected Page 361
• Corrected Page 362
• Added Dedication Page 402
• Errata Page 403

Further Corrections

Released in Elul 5776 is this new Minhag Ashkenaz machzor with commentary in Hebrew.  Up until now, there has been no such machzor with Hebrew commentary, so for Hebrew speakers following Minhag Ashkenaz, this machzor should greatly enhance their understanding of the Yom Kippur tefilah, and thus lead to an improvement in kavana.

The Machzor has many other notable features.  For example, the nusach has been corrected according to early machzorim, the structure of the piyutim is highlighted, and all of the relevant minhagim have been included.

Price (in Eretz Yisrael): ₪40.

20 Elul 5775

השיר והשבח
HaShir vhaShevach (Hebrew)
Piyutim for the Shabbosos of the Year, for Purim, and for Bris Milah
According to the Tradition of Ashkenaz Communities
by Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Rosenwasser
Jerusalem, 5775
540 pages

Distributed in the USA by Biegeleisen. Available in fine Jewish bookstores.  Also available from the author, e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , phone +972-2-571-1160 or +1-845-356-0734, or through representatives in several of the Ashkenaz communities:

• Rav David Cohen, Bnei Brak: +972-54-468-4647
• Rav Yitzchok Goldberg, Bnei Brak: +972-52-761-8267
• Rav Yeshayahu Schneller, Jerusalem: +972-50-414-9045
• Rav Aharon Neckameyer, Beitar: +972-52-863-8531
• Rav Zev Donner, Kiryat Sefer: +972-52-767-2867
• K’hal Adath Jeshurun, Monsey, NY
• Ephraim Rosenstock, K’hal Adath Jeshurun, Washington Heights, NY: +1-212-740-4348

Table of Contents | Sample Pages

This long-awaited work on the piyutim of the special shabbosos and Purim was received enthusiastically by leading rabbonim in Eretz Yisrael, the USA and Europe.

“With the help of Hashem Yisborach, we will henceforth be able to observe the tradition of reciting the piyutim, which Ashkenaz communities maintained so diligently, while thoroughly understanding the words of the Rishonim, and with the proper joy of fulfilling a mitzvah.” (from the approbation of one the eminent rabbonim)

7 Kislev 5774

‘זכרונות ומסורות על ה’חתם סופר
Memories and Traditions of the “Chasam Sofer” (Hebrew)
From his Family, his Students, and his Followers
Edited by Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger
Enhanced and revised edition
Bnei Brak, 5774
431 pages

Distributed by Yefe Nof-Feldheim. Available in fine Jewish bookstores.

Table of Contents | Sample Pages

7 Adar II 5771

מקום שנהגו
Makom Shenahagu
Minhag Bechhofen, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Ashkenaz
The Customs of the Synagogue
The Regulations of the Burial Society
The Commemoration Book
Original manuscripts written by Uri Shraga Rosenstein, spiritual leader of Bechhofen, 1867–1903
Edited and annotated by Rabbi Shlomo Katanka
Including an extensive history of the Jewish community of Bechhofen, by Rabbi Mordechai Doerfer
London, 5771

Distributed by Hadrat Sefer. Distributed in the U.K. by Lehmanns. Available in fine Jewish bookstores.

Hebrew section, 463 pages: Table of Contents | Sample Pages

English section, 101 pages: Table of Contents | Sample Pages

Reviewed by Rabbi Phillip Ginsbury, M.A., Rabbi Emeritus of South London Synagogue:

Following the massacres of Rhineland Jewish communities during the First Crusade (1096) it became customary to read the names of those martyred in a memorbuch (Commemoration Book), which also contained special prayers and lists of distinguished members of the community who had died naturally.

Jewish history became replete with such compilations in the following centuries and in recent times they have become one way of paying tribute to entire Jewish communities that were slaughtered during the Holocaust; including not only the names of the martyrs, but also a history of each community and in some cases recording their specific and sometimes unique ritual customs and synagogue regulations.

The small community of Bechhofen in Bavaria has been understandably non-existent since 1938, with only a Synagogenplatz park, a model of the Synagogue in the Town Hall and Jewish cemetery to remind passers-by of its past existence. Now however it has miraculously in a sense been restored to life, in a beautifully presented and scrupulously researched 564-page work Makom Shenahagu. Based on original manuscripts written by Uri Rosenstein, spiritual leader of Bechhofen from 1867 until 1903 and grandfather of Dr. Jacob Braude, a founder of Hendon Adath Synagogue, Rabbi Shlomo Katanka has carefully edited and annotated the work and included an extensive history of the Jewish community by Rabbi Mordechai Doerfer.

25 Tishrei 5771

הישיבה הרמה בפיורדא
The Yeshivah Ramah of Fürth (Hebrew)
The City of Torah in Southern Germany and its Scholars
by Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger
Bnei Brak, 5770
3 vols., 1868 pages

Distributed by Yefe Nof-Feldheim.  Available in fine Jewish bookstores.

(Please note: The illustrations appearing in color in the sample pages below do not appear in color in the printed books.)

Vol. 1: Our Rabbis the Rishonim in Nirenburg and their Continuation in Fürth: Table of Contents | Sample Pages

Vol. 2: The Period of its Flourishing: Table of Contents | Sample Pages

Vol. 3: The Yeshivah in the Shadow of its Destruction and the Struggle against the Reform: Table of Contents | Sample Pages

"Yeshivah Ramah" was the term used to describe what today would be considered a respected "Yeshivah Gedolah".  The Fürth Yeshivah was not the largest in Germany, nor was it the oldest or most renowned.  Neverthless, it was still sizeable, very well-known and a veteran institution.  At its zenith, student enrolment reached around six hundred, a number that not one of the Eastern European Yeshivos could boast of, even during their flourishing years before the Holocaust.  This was during an era in which European Jews were few among the masses and travel was arduous.  It was a period in which German Jewry had diminished significantly because so many had fled anti-Jewish edicts and had emigrated over hundreds of years to Eastern European countries, thereby establishing the German, Yiddish-speaking Diaspora.

26 Iyar 5769

משיחי השקר ומתנגדיהם
False Messiahs and their Opponents (Hebrew)
by Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger
Expanded edition
Bnei Brak, 5769
703 pages

Distributed by Yefe Nof-Feldheim.  Available in fine Jewish bookstores.

(Please note: The illustrations appearing in color in the sample pages below do not appear in color in the printed books.)

Table of Contents | Sample Pages

This new, expanded edition of the book False Messiahs and Their Opponents explores solid, historical facts surrounding the phenomenon of false Messiahs, and presents the words of our Sages throughout the generations regarding the dangers inherent in them.  Rabbis throughout the centuries have spoken harshly against false Messiahs.  Here we present the most pertinent arguments, as they appear in the chapters of the book:

7 Teves 5764

הרב יונה מרצבך
HaRav Yonah Merzbach (Hebrew)
His Life, his Way, and his Works
Edited by Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger and members of the family
Bnei Brak, 5764
196 pages

Out-of-print.

Table of Contents | Sample Pages

4 Tishrei 5753

נשיא הלויים
Prince of the Levites (Hebrew)
The Life and Works of Rabbi Yitzchok Dov Halevi Seligman Baer Bamberger
by Rav Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger
Bnei Brak, 5752

Out-of-print.

Table of Contents | Sample Pages