‘People of the book’ eyes a 500 years legacy in print

To say that this Kosher Bookworm loves books would be an understatement, and to read and evaluate a book on the history of Jewish book publishing is indeed a labor of love. So it is with this week’s selection, “People of the Book: Five Hundred Years of the Hebrew Book from The Beginning Of Printing Until The 20th Century” [Feldheim, 2014].

This 231 page coffee table-size book was authored by Rabbi Akiva Aaronson, whom I first heard of when praised by Rabbi Berel Wein. The book goes into great narrative and graphic detail in charting a history of the impact of the printing press, an invention that made the longevity of the Jewish religious creed so effective over these many centuries of exile and persecution.

Given all that we have faced over these many years, it can truly be said that the printing press came along at just the right time to save our holy writings from what likely would have been utter oblivion. However, sadly, this evaluation was not always representative of the many who viewed the printing of our literature as a threat to our faith.

One of the most engaging chapters in this work is titled, “Questions in Halachah.” As with most issues dealing with Jewish law, by its very nature, close scrutiny is given to the pros and cons and the legitimacy of any innovative procedure that effects change to established means and methods, in this case, the mass printing of our holy works.

The author details this aspect of our history, and following are several examples of his narrative on this, cast in a series of three questions. This is but a brief summary intended to whet your appetite to prompt you to read more from the original work.

Consider first: “Is it permitted to print words of the Torah?”

“Certain documents have a particular requirement to be handwritten: a sefer Torah, the scrolls inside tefillin, a mezuzah, and a get. In each of these cases, the Torah itself states this. The Sages also decreed that a Megillas Esther should be handwritten. The question therefore arose whether, since they are required to be handwritten, they could be printed instead.”

The author presents both sides of the argument. Here’s a sample forbidding printing: