I know there are only a few of us the actively read ot study Jewish religion or history.

Today at the Layton Deseret Industries there are 12 books in Hebrew on a variety of relegious texts. Some rather nicely bound. About $2.00 each.

I wish I could see them.

The "rather nicely bound" probably means they really are religious texts (rather than, for example, more popular literature like history books), and the price is astounding if they are what I think they might be.

Unfortunately for me, I am about 800 miles away.

Thanks for the heads up! For the right person, in the right place (northern Utah), this could potentially be an incredible find.

Too bad they're not in Reformed Egyptian--you know--the learning of the Jews in the writing of the Egyptians.... :-)

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Too bad they're not in Reformed Egyptian--you
> know--the learning of the Jews in the writing of
> the Egyptians.... :-)

:D

I just emailed a synagogue in SLC.

For someone--and if these books are what I think they might be-- this would be a wonderful opportunity.

Thank you, Heartless!

Hopefully they are not just run of the mill books. Some are new. Some are old. Some were strictly in Hebrew, some had Hebrew text with english "transliterated" under each line.

Some books were in leather with gold hebrew lettering. Some were faux leather or cloth with gold lettering.

Some had print dates from the 50s. Usually the only non Hebrew text on the page.

All but two were "backwards" that is read from right to left back to front.

If your friend makes the trip I hope they are not disappointed.

It is absolutely, most definitely, worth the trip from SLC to Layton if some of those volumes are (as I suspect) Talmud (or some of the other main texts--but I am thinking, mainly, Talmud).

The Talmud is a record of discussions, over about six hundred years, about--mostly but not entirely--Torah (meaning, in this context: the first five books of the Hebrew Bible).

That "record of conversations/debates" is divided into 38 volumes, which contain (collectively) over ten million words.

And here is the important-to-this-thread fact: If a given person "learns" (means: studies) one page of Talmud a day, then they will have covered the entire Talmud in 7 1/2 years. This is called Daf Yomi (the "Daily Page"), and this kind of often free-form, semi-"organized" study occurs worldwide, is growing at a startlingly rapid pace, and is constantly including more and more women constantly ("women" means, in general: females age twelve through the rest of their lives).

[I very highly recommend Ilana Kurshan's memoir: IF ALL THE SEAS WERE INK (2017, available in trade paperback). Here is the cover description of this book:

"At the age of twenty-seven, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, [American born and raised] Ilana Kurshan joined the world's largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for "daily page" of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about six hundred years. Her story is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud. For people of the book--both Jewish and non-Jewish--IF ALL THE SEAS WERE INK is a celebration of learning, through literature, how to fall in love once again."]

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24367959

If some of the books available for "about $2.00" each at the Deseret Industries store in Layton are volumes of Talmud, this would be an extraordinary gift of good fortune to anyone who, for example, wanted to participate in the many Daf Yomi studies (individually, in a local group, or online) taking place right now.

It is, very possibly, well worth the trip to Layton.

Thank you, Heartless!

I can only read Hebrew letters and pronounce words, but I don’t know what I’m saying.
I do know some of the Blessings in Hebrew, and certain words, like Shabbat and Shalom in Hebrew because they are used all the time.

Also, it takes some getting used to when the Hebrew letters are used for other languages, like Yiddish and others.I keep trying to pronounce the T in words with an S, because I started reading all Ashkenazi vs Sephardic. Most of my books are Orthodox too.
Maybe you can order copies of these books online?

Hockeyrat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Also, it takes some getting used to when the
> Hebrew letters are used for other languages, like
> Yiddish and others.I keep trying to pronounce the
> T in words with an S, because I started reading
> all Ashkenazi vs Sephardic. Most of my books are
> Orthodox too.

Oh yeah. I go back and forth, depending on who I am listening to (on YouTube or wherever). Modern Hebrew is mostly Sephardi (the English "t" sound at the end of a word, for example) in pronunciation, but most everyone can understand Ashkenazi pronunciation (the English "s" sound at the end of a word) so there is no real problem. I have wondered if those who are ultra-Orthodox and who make Aliyah to Israel, whether they gradually start speaking Israeli Hebrew, or if they continue to stick closely to Ashkenazi forms.

> Maybe you can order copies of these books
> online?

Yes, absolutely....and they are also on sale at Jewish bookstores. The problem is they cost (as I remember) about a hundred dollars a volume (which no one complains about because everyone understands this is actually a very fair price for the immensely complicated product produced)--but if there is an opportunity to buy one or more volumes of Talmud for TWO DOLLARS a copy, this is an enormously favorable price! I don't know if those books in Layton are, in actuality, Talmud or not--but if any of them are, this is a bargain nobody would pass up.

Could these books just be prayerbooks from a synagogue, not Talmud?

Jersey Girl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could these books just be prayerbooks from a
> synagogue, not Talmud?

Oh, yeah. They could also be fiction books, or could be any number of other types of books--and in addition to the Hebrew language itself, the Hebrew letters could be written in other languages (including Ladino, which is a Hebrew/Spanish, and probably Portuguese, mix--or in Judeo-Arabic, or Judeo-Persian, etc.).

What got my attention was the "rather nicely bound" description, plus the details (leather or faux leather covers, gold lettering), all of which would be common for Talmud (or some of the other, serious, Jewish texts), and uncommon for more pedestrian subjects.

And, as you have pointed out, some of these could simply be prayerbooks.

For anyone who cared, though, it would definitely be worth checking out because of the possibility that some of the books MIGHT be Talmud (or any of the other, most highly valued, Jewish texts).

Even if a given person already owned "that" particular volume of Talmud, they would likely spend $2.00 for the Deseret Industries copy (and then give it to someone in their family, or contribute it to their local synagogue library, etc.).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2019 03:33PM by Tevai.