Reading to the next generation: our niece’s children.
Dear Friends: According to the book Hebrew Ethical Wills, selected and edited by Israel Abrahams, there is a beautiful custom dating back millennia for Jews to compose testamentary directions for the religious and secular guidance of their children.
In Abrahams’ anthology, there is a passage from an ethical will composed by Moses Hasid and published in the early 18th CE. The author says, “I prefer to pray less so as to read more.” I suspect that not every rabbi would subscribe to this sentiment, but I’d like to devote this quarterly message to the topic of reading, an activity that I value above most others (to the occasional dismay of Beverly, who thinks – for reasons I cannot fathom – that it is unhealthy for me to stay indoors 24 hours a day).
I derived tremendous joy out of reading nightly to Dov and Orli when they were young, though admittedly I would occasionally fall asleep in the middle of one of their stories. It is my contention that reading to one’s children is among the most important actions that parents can take to launch their progeny on a lifelong love of learning.
When we read, we are able to journey to different eras and locales, experience different cultures, and gain insight into different perspectives than our own. While the phrase “People of the Book” was first applied by Muslims to those with a previous scriptural revelation, many Jews have now appropriated those words to refer to ourselves. The eminent Harvard scholar, Harry Wolfson, stated that, “As far as I know, we are the only people who, when we drop a book on the floor, we pick it up and kiss it.” (I’m not sure of the custom associated with a Kindle).
Beverly and I made a few trips to New York this past quarter; the first one provided me with an opportunity to sing on the stage of Carnegie Hall, and on the second, we celebrated with a dear friend who turned 83-years of age. By rabbinic math in which a full life is ascribed to 70 years, he became 13 for the second time. Friends and family of the “Bar Mitzvah” came from all over to share in the joy as he read from the Torah scroll. This individual set a tremendous example to all who attended, showing that reading and learning in Jewish tradition never cease. While in New York on that trip, several former congregants came up to me to say that they enjoy reading my quarterlies. I was filled with gratitude.
On our New York subway rides, I was acutely conscious that by wearing a kippah, I was telegraphing my Jewish background, and I remain deeply troubled by the alarming rise in antisemitism in this country and throughout the world. I’ve been continuing making the rounds of local churches and sermonizing on antisemitism; my goal is to build as large a community of allies as possible to help combat this scourge. You’ll see below in the list of books I’ve read recently a few more works that help inform my understanding of antisemitism, and I’m honored to have been accepted as a member of the newest cohort for an intensive through the Spertus Institute in Chicago entitled Leadership Certificate Program in Combating Antisemitism for Professionals. I don’t doubt that we’ll get a huge reading list!
Am Yisrael Chai and B’shalom, Rabbi Jack
*the quotation “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” is attributed to Fran Lebowitz
Reading list for the quarter
An asterisk* denotes a book I particularly enjoyed reading.
Jews Don’t Count – David Baddiel
J’Accuse* – Aharon Shabtai; tr. Peter Cole
Childe Harold of Dysna – Moyshe Kulbak; tr. Robert Adler Peckerar
In the Land of Happy Tears – ed. David Stromberg; tr. various
The Drive – Yair Assulin; tr. Jessica Cohen
Bauhaus Tel Aviv: An Architectural Guide – Nahoum Cohen
The Only Daughter* – A.B. Yehoshua; tr. Stuart Schoffman
The Kaddish Prayer: a New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized
from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources – Nosson Scherman
The Humbling – Philip Roth
What is Life? – Erwin Schrodinger
Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon* – Robert Alter
The Way to the Cats – Yehoshua Kenaz; tr. Dalya Bilu
Blessed Hands – Frume Halpern; tr. Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
The Problem of Space in Jewish Mediaeval Philosophy – Israel Isaac Efros
Thistles: Selected Poems of Esther Raab; tr. Harold Schimmel
Medical Frontiers and Jewish Law: Essays and Responsa; ed. Walter Jacob
The Crime of Writing – Haim Lapid; tr. Yael Lotan
The Hebrew Teacher – Maya Arad; tr. Jessica Cohen
Medicine and Jewish Law: Volume II – ed. Fred Rosner
One Hundred Saturdays*: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World – Michael Frank
Feynman’s Tips on Physics* – Richard Feynman, Michael Gottlieb, and Ralph Leighton
The Forgotten Physicist: Robert F. Bacher, 1905-2004 – Alan Carr
