I have not been blogging much recently, either here on Livejournal. This is partly because I have not had much to say, but partly because I have been busy. This has partly been down to my doing voluntary work two afternoons a week at the library of a Reform rabbinical college (don't worry, I am not having crisis of faith in Orthodoxy; the job was too good to pass up, although my colleagues do not yet know that I am Orthodox - I do not know if they will guess when I come in having shaved off my pre-Lag B'Omer beard).
My current job is cataloging the library's rare books, a small room full of centuries-old books. Sometimes some interesting things come up. Among the things I came across today were:
pamphlets for and against the 1753 Jewish Naturalization Bill;
Vindiciae Judaeorum, a pamphlet by the famous seventeenth century rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, presumably part of his campaign for Jewish admission to Britain, arguing that Jews would be good citizens, starting by disproving the blood libel;
lots of Yiddish pamphlets which I could not understand (the Hebrew books frequently go beyond the limits of my language skills (font size helps me find the title and author); with the Yiddish ones I count myself lucky if I can work out which city they were published in);
a Jacobean sermon celebrating deliverance of James I and VI from a conspiracy that I had never heard of despite my familiarity with the period (I have no idea what the sermon was doing in the library, as it has no obvious Jewish connection).
7 comments:
Thanks for sharing those books. I read a children's version of Travels of Benjamin of Tudela; I loved it so much I wanted to write and illustrate other Jewish tales like that one! Well, that was the idea. Never acted on it because I never found quite as good a tale as that one.
Glad to hear your are getting something out of your new job.
You're job is too awesome.
(It's past Lag B'Omer now. Did your colleagues notice you shaved?)
your*
Rachel: I presume they noticed, but no one said anything.
Yeah, that's a pretty pycho position you got there man. But seriously, an intellectual guy like you should consider brushing up on their Hebrew (I personally feel there's not much of an excuse for Orthodox Jews to excuse themselves from learning Hebrew as much as they can...since the holy writings and prayers are in Hebrew).
I do practise my Hebrew regularly, and it isn't that bad, but as I mainly know Biblical Hebrew, I'm a bit lost with terms like 'printer'.
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