Searching for Books
Originally published on Gimme Some Torah by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel on September 1, 2026.
Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash
Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:12–13
לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲלֶה־לָּ֤נוּ הַשָּׁמַ֙יְמָה֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃ וְלֹֽא־מֵעֵ֥בֶר לַיָּ֖ם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲבָר־לָ֜נוּ אֶל־עֵ֤בֶר הַיָּם֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃
It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”
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Some people have eidetic or even photographic memory. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, the father of the Vilna Gaon, was not one of them. Whenever he questioned his memory of a text, he would go straight to the bookshelves and look up the reference. That way, he could be confident that he was citing and attributing the needed quotation accurately.
There was, of course, no Amazon.com in the 18th century. There were libraries in Vilna that had Jewish collections, but some of the more obscure commentaries were probably not available. Here’s story about Rabbi Shlomo Zalman’s search for holy books:
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman often had to travel far and wide to find the books he needed. This was a particularly slow and arduous process that sometimes required him to stay in distant towns for days at a time.
His relatives asked him, “Why must you travel so much to find a book? How far does God want you to travel just so you can get a book you need?” He answered with a reference to this week’s Torah portion:
It is explicitly stated in the Talmud (B. Eruvin 55a): What is meant by the words ‘It is not in the heavens… nor beyond the seas… (Deut. 30:12-13)?’ The words “It is not in heaven” mean that if the Torah were in Heaven, we would be commanded to go up and get it. Likewise, the words ‘and it is not in the sea’ mean that if the Torah were in the sea, we would be commanded to go down and get it.”
“So you must agree with me, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman added with a smile, “that I have not yet fulfilled even half of this requirement of the Sages…” —See Parpera’ot LaTorah, Menahem Becker, ed. (Jerusalem: Omen Publishers, 1986), p. 217
Today, it is very easy to find Jewish primary sources and commentaries online, especially on Sefaria and Hebrewbooks.org. Even so, we should all maintain personal libraries of actual, physical books. The internet is fine for a quick reference check, but the only kind of relationship you can have with it is the slave-master type. You are the slave, and the algorithm is your master.
By way of contrast, you can have a real relationship with a physical book. Like a human being, a book has weight, a feel, an appearance, and a smell. Like a human being, a physical book ages and must be handled with care. It requires an active form of reading rather than mindless scrolling.
The typical book is written by one or more authors. But the power of the Torah itself created our people.
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