Religious rulings, warnings and instructions also appeared on the walls, from a detailed teshuvah on the use of electricity on Shabbat, to a prohibition on women seeing male doctors based on issues of modesty and the impropriety of being alone with a man, to a warning against the purchase of stolen lulavim , noting that one may not make a berakha over stolen goods. The rabbis even posted broadsides giving instructions regarding the re-enameling of pots for Pesach and where people could sell their hametz . As one might expect of any spot that claims a broad readership, the walls became a pre-eminent advertisement board. Whether for kosher l'pesach food items or a newfangled depilatory that avoided the halakhic problem with shaving, the walls were, and still are, the place to advertise goods and services. These broadsides continue to be posted even today in Meah Shearim, where stores stay open very late and the hustle and bustle lasts throughout the day and evening.
Public notices go up and come down every day or two.
And people continue to read the walls as they go about their lives. Dr. Bruce Nielsen, coordinator of the Seminary's Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmudic Research since 1993, has been appointed assistant dean of the JTS Graduate School. Dr. Nielsen holds an MA and a PhD from JTS, and an MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. The Social Setting of the Levitical Purity Rules in the Judaisms of the First Four Centuries , to be published shortly. Dr. Nielsen, who has served as liaison for Jewish-Christian Studies for Union Theological Seminary and JTS since 1992, is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Society of Papyrologists and the Association for Jewish Studies.