Boy do we love our books!
Begun 4,000 years ago, our love-affair with Torah books and learning has intensified and solidified steadily ever since. 2,500 years before Islam derisively dubbed us (and others) “the People of the Book” to be “tolerated”, our lives and days were filled with learning and the scrolls and books that enabled it. The first Jew, Abraham, studied in the first recorded Torah school (the academy of Shem and Eber) and passed the sacred tradition and love of learning to his family.
When his grandson Jacob discovers his long-lost son Joseph in Egypt and is advised to move down to Egypt, Jacob hesitates, loath to leave his Holy Land and descend to the international capital of decadence. And even after Divine assurances of a return to the Promised Land, Jacob takes a historic precautionary measure: he dispatches his son Judah to reach Egypt ahead of the others and charges him with having a Jewish school ready for operation by the time they all arrive. Only with that in hand, Jacob is confident that his children will resist assimilation and retain their unique status.
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And sure enough, down through the ages, under Assyrian, Roman, Spanish, Soviet and other oppressive regimes, Jewish men, women and children risked death to continue learning. And the countless Jewish-book burnings we’ve suffered only attest further to our intense love and connection with our holy books.
In the central prayer of Judaism – the Shema – we recite G-d’s commandment to us to “teach (Torah) thoroughly to your children.” And indeed, we are obligated to begin teaching our children from the day they speak their first word, and even earlier. At no point does the obligation to learn expire and studying Torah continues to the final breath and beyond. We learn from angels while we develop in the womb pre-life and we learn from Tzadikim when we repose in Paradise after-life.
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Moses, the greatest Jew in history, is referred to simply as “our teacher”, and Moshiach will be greater than Moses because he will be Moses’ teacher. We equate those who taught us with those who parented us, and when we sit with our beloved books and study the Divine wisdom they hold, we feel like eager students in the class of the ultimate Teacher.
We hold our books reverently, always right-side up, and treat them with the same respect afforded a teacher. We stack our holy books in age order, always taking care to place the early works above the recent ones and not to leave eyeglasses, pencils or other objects resting on them. We lovingly kiss them if they fall and bury them just as lovingly when their time comes.
When Shaini’s grandfather ran for his life during the Holocaust his mother gave him her ring to sell in case he ran out of essentials. Twenty years later his children were astounded to find out that somewhere on his near-death dash from Poland to Russia to Lithuania to China to Japan, he sold the ring and bought…books.
We sum it up every night, when we pray the evening service: “You loved us, You taught us the Torah…night and day, we learn and learn…we will always and forever rejoice with your teachings…for they are our life and the length of our days!”
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THE FOUR-DAY BOOK BUYING CAMPAIGN
This Sunday, Tevet 5 on the Jewish calendar, is “Holy-Book Day” in Chabad. (The reason why is found here.) On this day, Chassidim and admirers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe o.b.m. from the world over, make annual purchases to enlarge their personal libraries of holy books, Torah books. Be it the Five Books of the Torah, or the Mishna or Talmud, Kabbalah, Jewish Law, Chassidus, Jewish stories, Rashi, Maimonides, history, contemporary works, or the myriad of other subjects and genres that comprise a proud Jewish library, books are bought, inscribed, gifted, studied and added to growing collections in tens of thousands of Jewish households worldwide.
Calabasas is joining the annual celebration of books and learning with a very special four-day campaign. We’ve partnered with Mitzvahland in Encino, a local Judaica treasure and huge source of Jewish books and wisdom, to offer a special opportunity to those who join the global movement to bring the wisdom and sanctity of holy books in ever more Jewish homes.
From now until Monday, December 9 at 11:59pm, all book purchases receive an additional 15% off Mitzvahland’s already discounted prices. If you make the purchases online at Mitzvahland.com, enter promo code CALABASASCHABAD at checkout; if you shop in person at their store at 16733 Ventura Blvd (between Hayvenhurst & Balboa Blvd) mention this special Chabad of Calabasas promotion and you will be given the special discount in honor of “Holy-Book Day.”
Buy books for your home, buy some for others, and let their shine brighten the lives around them. One book, small or large sets, anything is better than nothing.
“They are our life and the length of our days!”
Shabbat Shalom, good Shabbos!