Jews have been called the People of the Book. The term is a translation of the Arabic Ahl al-Kitab, the Muslim category of people whose religion is based on divine revelation in the form of a book. These included people like Jews, Christians, and Zorastrians, and the Prophet Muhammed granted them a special status.
Jews have adopted the moniker with love. And rightfully so. Our lives do not just revolve around the cyclical reading of the Torah. We read, and study, a lot of books. Some of them we read year after year. Many of them cite one another. We even believe that God spends this time of year writing us down in a book--and hopefully the right one. We are a religion that celebrates the importance and power of the written word.
As Adam Kirsch points out in his book, The People of the Books, after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, books became the way that the Jews interacted with God. We no longer have prophets to tell us what God wants, or animal sacrifice to express ourselves to God. We devote ourselves to the study of God’s law, both written and oral, through books.
So we need to be able to read. As Maimonides writes (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Torah Study 1:8-9):
Every Jew is obligated to study Torah, whether he is poor or rich, healthy or ill, young or old. Even if he is a pauper who derives his livelihood from charity, or if he has family obligations to his wife and children, he must still establish fixed times for Torah study ― both day and night, as it says (Joshua 1:8), "You shall think about it day and night.”
The great Sages of Israel included wood choppers, water drawers and blind men. Despite these [difficulties], they were occupied with Torah study day and night, and were amongst those who transmitted Torah in the unbroken chain dating back to Moses.
And while it is true that when Maimonides was writing in the 12th century, Torah study was generally reserved for men, the advent of publishing in the vernacular, whether yiddish or ladino, meant that women started to learn to read, too. And of course, today women also get to study Torah.
When my spouse and I moved into our new home, we were amazed by how many of our moving boxes were filled with books. And so the first change we made in our home was to create a library. Eventually we repaired the roof...first we built a library. And we filled it with the books of a rabbi and a law professor. And then we had two kids, who often receive books as gifts. So just out of curiosity, I started counting how many books are in our home. When I passed 1000, I stopped counting.
My children are growing up in a home filled with books. Their parents read to them every day, they watch their parents read grown-up books in more than one language, and they come to synagogue where everyone is holding a book.
As many of you know, my daughter, along with some of her friends from the synagogue, started school last year as a public school student in Detroit. She came home recently and told us with surprise that there are kids in her class who do not know how to read. We explained that there will be some things that she learns before her friends and some things that her friends will learn before she does, and its important that friends learn from each other. But we knew that, chances are, some of the kids in her class will not learn to read for a very, very long time. In fact, only about 10% of students in Detroit public schools are reading at or above grade level. Only 10%. Most of the 90% who have fallen behind are smart, capable kids, who can become great readers. But they started school at a significant disadvantage.
The median number of books in the home of a student in the Detroit Public Schools Community District is...wanna guess? Not 1,000, not 100, not even 10. The median number of books in the home of a student in DPSCD is...Zero. And a significant percentage of adults in Detroit are functionally illiterate, meaning that even if there were books in the home, and they wanted to read their child a bedtime story, they can’t.
As children fall farther and farther behind in school, even master teachers are unable to meet the needs of the wide range of reading levels in their classrooms. Eventually the disparity between kids who can ready by third grade and those that cannot is profound, and the gap becomes more and more difficult to close. But there is something we can do about it.
Yesterday I spoke of the importance of recognizing our own abundance and learning to share it. People who enjoy the profound privilege of reading need to make books and literacy accessible. Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the new superintendent of DPSCD, and a personal hero of mine, has launched a community volunteer program called “Let’s Read,” which is designed to match community volunteers with students who need literacy tutoring. And it’s working.
So the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, along with our friends here at Breakers Covenant Church International, have partnered with Palmer Park Preparatory Academy, a Detroit public school in the University District of Detroit, that its alumni may know, was formerly called Hampton. Downtown Synagogue’s Program Coordinator Nicole Feinberg, Breakers Covenant’s Manager Tyreka McClean, and I went to meet with the principal of Palmer Park Prep. Her name is Dr. Georgia Hubbard, and she is committed to dramatically improving the literacy of the students in her school. She showed us the new literacy center, staffed with teachers who are trained to do literacy intervention and train volunteers. She walked Nicole and I through the classrooms, pointing out how few of them had adequate numbers of books.
And so we asked Dr. Hubbard what she needs. Her request was simple. She needs books, and she needs volunteers to train to be literacy tutors through the Let’s Read program. So, my fellow people of the book, we are going to do three things.
First, as we celebrate Simchat Torah, and dance in the streets of Detroit with a book that we love, we are going to be collecting hardback books for students in kindergarten through second grade. You will see more information about this in our newsletter, but start thinking now about what books you can collect or purchase. As we rejoice in the centrality of books in our lives, we are going to share books too.
And second, we are going to start volunteering. Alongside our friends here are Breakers Covenant Church International, we are going to be volunteering at Palmer Park Prep. We know that not everyone can take time off during school hours, but if you have a job with flexible hours, please speak with me, or with Nicole, about volunteer opportunities. Because literacy tutoring works.
Finally, we are a people called to pursue lifelong learning ourselves. I know we don’t think we have time. I know that in part because even as a rabbi, I often think other commitments are greater priorities. So I am grateful to be a fellow in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Rabbinic Leadership Initiative. Over the course of the fellowship, I will spend a total of seventeen weeks studying in Israel, and will engage in biweekly learning sessions the rest of the year. I am deeply grateful to the William Davidson Foundation, and the tremendous staff and lay leadership of the synagogue, for their support.
I invite you to find your fixed time for study, and the partners who can help make it possible. For, after all, as Maimonides continues in the Mishneh Torah (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Torah Study 3:7):
Perhaps one will say: "[I will interrupt my studies] until after I make money, and then I will return and study. [I will interrupt my studies] until after I buy what I need and can focus less on my business. Then I will return and study."
If you think like this, you will never merit the Crown of Torah. Rather, make your work provisional and your Torah study permanent. Do not say: "When I have free time, I will study," for perhaps you will never have free time.
In 5780, let’s prioritize learning, for us and for others, and in so doing, make it a sweet new year. Shanah Tovah.