As a Jew I grew to love and respect books! If a prayer book or a Bible falls my reaction is automatically to lift and kiss it.
Lee Diamond – When people of the book ban books
As a Jew I grew to love and respect books! If a prayer book or a Bible falls my reaction is automatically to lift and kiss it.
As the Torah is carried in the synagogue many show their respect by touching and kissing it.
If the Torah falls some feel obligated to fast for days.
We are known as the people of the book!
For many a library is somehow holy. It deserves reverence. Even the smells of a library are unique to me.
The library inspires silence–like ‘know that you are standing before the wisdom of the ages.”
The books that I haven’t read are mysterious to me as well as embarrassing. They are my failure. I’ve yet to meet them.
An image that always passes through my mind is the Yeshiva student in Eastern Europe with a wide open volume of the Talmud and a hidden copy of Sigmund Fraud within. Books allow us to live in two worlds.
Once I was in a synagogue with professor AJ Heschel. After the Torah was returned to the Ark, it fell from the ark with a tumultuous crash on to the floor. Everyone was in shock for the “Book of Book” had fallen –had been desecrated !
Heschel personally lifted the Torah , replaced it in the ark and turned to the congregation and declared that we needed to give charity and not fast because only the body and not the content of the Torah had accidentally fallen.
Books are precious because of their content .
It’s from books that we learn. Because they provide the content of life.
To ban a book which disagrees with your politics or world view is not only a act of barbarism but in fact an act of fascism.
The Romans banned our books.
Some entered secret caves to read them and some were burned with them.
The inquisition banned and burned our books! Yet Some secretly hid them and found moments to read and teach them.
And some had public book burnings to try to eradicate us.
The books burned but the flames could not consume the content which only burned brighter for this people of the book.
And now our glorious Nation of the Book living on its own soil: The Ministry of Education of the Jewish State is banning the book; The Culture; The Art; The Theatre ; The Ideas; The content which filled our minds and our dreams; Our search and struggle to find meaning and to discover how to imitate the Divine by continuing the Creation.
Nobody can overrule ideas!
Not even fanatical politicians.
I encourage every child of Israel to Keep their hidden copy of of the banned books inside their permitted books.
I urge them to think out of the “Boxed” and Permitted State Controlled books.
The more they ban–the more we must seek that very wisdom
Because we’re the “People of the Book”
We are Jews? And we are consumed by the BOOK.
So pleased to have Rav. Diamond share his thoughts at Israel Seen.
Rabbi Lee Diamond, is based in Israel and began his unique rabbinate as an Israel Educator for the Diaspora. Rabbi Diamond has served as director of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, and Associate Director of the Israel office of the UJR and NFTY Israel programs. He has dedicated his life to sharing the Israel he loves and creating an educational experiences for everyone visiting Israel. Rabbi Diamond’s philosophy: Israel is the stage on which I want to act out the drama of the Jewish people, its creative survival, and to affect people’s lives. When we see each other our discussion always seems to find its way to the ever changing political situation in Israel. In the end of course we come around to what is dear to the hearts of both of us: the importance of emphasizing Jewish values and ethics in our society
Lee Diamond – When people of the book ban books
