麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger.

Good morning.

On this day in 1482, a Jewish printer, Abraham ben Hayyim dei Tintori, completed the first Hebrew printed edition of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, in Bologna. Copies are very rare, like all books printed before 1500. And it was a dramatic breakthrough for anyone interested in the Hebrew text; they could buy a copy and read it without strain.

We think of books as commonplace. But that printing achievement must have been as much of a gamechanger as modern paperbacks. Or perhaps it was more like the invention of the internet and material being published online. Revolutionary.

We Jews are people of the book, or text. We teach our children to read very young. Spreading knowledge by printing made it available to everyone, and stopped the priests and rabbis holding all the power. Before, they had been the only people who could read. Now everyone could learn to read, and study. It was thought essential to be able to access knowledge.

And it still is. That鈥檚 why supporting literacy worldwide is so important. That鈥檚 why girls need to be educated as much as boys- to give them power. You can only make decisions if you have access to finding things out for yourself, whether online or in print. Sometimes what鈥檚 available will be rubbish. Or deliberately malign.

But we need to be able to distinguish good from bad and understand what we read. Printing was a revolution. The internet has been another. So, as we go online more and more, let us use the knowledge it gives us for good, and see off those who want to publish untruths. Knowledge should give us strength.

When we Jews finish reading a book of the Torah we say Chazak, chazak, ve nitchazek. Be strong, be strong, let us strengthen one another. Strength comes from both knowledge and understanding. Let us pursue both with open hearts.

Amen.

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