People of the Book
Fri, August 17, 2012
From the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island: The Biblia Polyglotta in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. It was printed in 8 folio volumes and dates to 1584. This page is from the first of four volumes including the Hebrew Bible, volume 5 contains the New Testament, and the last three critical notes, vocabularies, comments, and archaeological findings. This was obtained in 1774 by Ezra Stiles, Redwood librarian and president of Yale University, through a subscription appeal to gentlemen members whose names are inscribed by Stiles, himself, as Librarian and contributor. Several members of the Jewish community were listed as subscribers: Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, Aaron Lopez, and Isaac Stark among others. Stiles desired to study this edition to further his biblical scholarship and his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, the latter of which he studied with Isaac Touro beginning in 1767.*
The Venetian Bible dates to 1487 and is considered an incunable. An incunable is a book printed in the first fifty years of the Gutenberg Press (1450-1500). They are printed by press, but hand illuminated. Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island received this book in 1748, which makes it the longest held incunable by any American library. This is a bossed book. Bosses are brass pegs, and were used for practical reasons. One could slip your hands under a heavy book to lift it, and they held the leather bindings off the surface of furniture, allowing the leather to breathe.*
Sermon Outline:
1- Intro with excitement over a study trip to Newport and Providence, Rhode Island. As with any trip, sometimes the unexpected catches your attention.
– Redwood Library was a total surprise:
o 91% of all of the collection from before the Revolutionary War
o Ezra Stiles, librarian…better known as President of Yale
o Importance of the Jews of Newport to town and library
o Got to see books from the Vault
§ LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT TWO BOOKS I GOT TO SEE~!!!! IMPORTANCE OF BIBLES IN COLONIAL PERIOD AND HEBREW!
· The Biblia Polyglotta – was bought with donations and the names of the donors are listed in the cover: Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, Aaron Lopez, Isaac Stark – Jewish philanthropists
· Colonials loved Hebrew and so do we
· Incunable – Venetian Bible from 1487
§ Post Gutenberg: printed with hand colored pictures – didn’t think printing press would last
· We are the “People of the Book” – ONE OF THE FIRST GROUPS TO USE THE PRINTING PRESS.
2- “People of the Book” – not just the Torah. Jews love books and I am one of those Jews!! We publish more books than any other group by our numbers. More Jewish books published in America than Israel. See that on Amazon!
3- American Jewish Archives has the largest Jewish collection in the country and you and I support it by our dues contributions through TBS to the URJ. We are, each one of us, “People of the Book” because we not only write and read books, historically, but we buy books and preserve them. I have one of the largest Jewish libraries in Virginia at my house. I love books! I have thousands of them.
4- Washington Post the other day: children who read books over the summer remember more of what they learned during the school year and get off to a better start when the new year begins. Books are good for our mental health and our brain’s ability to learn.
5- The Digital Age: some people say books are a thing of the past
– good that people are reading, but can’t write on your Kindle or iPad — somehow an iGod doesn’t work for me.
– no bookmarks/post-it notes to go back to
– a library offers the ability to browse and scan in a way you can’t.
– I love to research with a few books on my desk
– Each book I look at on the shelf is an individual in a greater story of the other books it shares the shelf with
Star Trek: they read on little electronic devices before we had such a thing but Capt Picard read real books
Micah- Buying books, real books for my grandson. Can’t ‘pat the bunny’ on a screen and feel the fur! (YET!) Tactile books – open doors, turn pages – hug a book, we start to love reading with those early childhood books.
Never need to worry about a device being charged. Book is good with flashlight, daylight or candlelight!
– I have 12 books next to my bed. The covers on them and their feel sometimes determines what I read. I love books!
– I don’t want to be like the people in the late 1400’s when the incunable was published, who didn’t believe the printing press would last – but, books are still important, even i the digital age.
6- Torah as a scroll and then became a book…. Yes, what is within survives, but not sure I want the Kindle of Life… I like the idea of God writing in a book….
7- Will we continue to be the “People of the Book?” What would happen if Jews stop reading and learning.? LOVE BOOKS WITH ME. PRESERVE THEM. BUY THEM. (USE AMAZON THROUGH THE TBS WEBSITE SO WE CAN MAKE 5%.) AND READ READ READ…AS WE FINISH UP THE SUMMER, LET’S RECOMMIT TO BEING “PEOPLE OF THE BOOK” — THE TORAH, JEWISH BOOKS, ALL BOOKS.
LET’S MAKE TBS THE PLACE FOR LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING AND LET THAT LEARNING START WITH THE BOOKS WE READ.
SHABBAT SHALOM.
*My gratitude to Elaine Bunnell who gave us the tour of the Redwood Library and sent me the detailed information on the two books I talk about.
Frank Kohn adds to RARP’s Star Trek reference:
Reading your sermon on books reminded me of the following conversation between Captain James Kirk and his lawyer in the episode “Court Martial”. Strangely it very closely resonates a portion of your sermon.
COGLEY: What’s the matter? Don’t you like books?
KIRK: Oh, I like them fine, but a computer takes less space.
COGLEY: A computer, huh? I got one of these in my office. Contains all the precedents. The synthesis of all the great legal decisions written throughout time. I never use it.
KIRK: Why not?
COGLEY: I’ve got my own system. Books, young man, books. Thousands of them. If time wasn’t so important, I’d show you something. My library. Thousands of books.
KIRK: And what would be the point?
COGLEY: This is where the law is. Not in that homogenized, pasteurized, synthesizer. Do you want to know the law, the ancient concepts in their own language, Learn the intent of the men who wrote them, from Moses to the tribunal of Alpha 3? Books.