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Yavne and its Sage: Menahem Kahana (1946–2025)

JL;DR SUMMARY Menahem Kahana, a leading scholar in classical rabbinic literature, passed away on December 10, 2025. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

TalmudHebrew UniversityTikkun OlamJewish ScholarshipRabbinic LiteraturePhilologyMenahem KahanaSifreKibbutz YavneEliezer Rosenthal

Places mentioned

Jerusalem, Israel
"Although he had retired from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I knew he was still working."
Kibbutz Yavne, Southern District, Israel
"His parents were European immigrantshis mother was of German descent, and his father came from a long line of Hasidic rabbisand they raised him on Kibbutz Yavne, a religious kibbutz filled with halutzim who had survived the Holocaust."
Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel
"I finally got to see Kahana hold court in the Talmud departments seminar room on Mount Scopus."
Teaneck, New Jersey, United States
"I first met Kahana almost twenty years ago, when he was spending a sabbatical living in Teaneck, New Jersey, and working at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America."
Alon Shvut, Jerusalem, Israel
"He moved to the settlement of Alon Shvut, and the building of the Har Etzion yeshiva, the flagship institution of centrist religious Zionism, towered over his new neighborhood."
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Retrieved 2026-03-26 05:31:16 UTC
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