Harry Potter and the Tractate of Truth

Sometimes it is good to seek the counsel of others. This is one such occasion.

A few days ago I was asked if I might consider writing another book on Avot. Unlike the usual commentaries, this book would be an appreciation of Avot viewed through the medium of the seven Harry Potter novels. At present I am very much in two minds about taking this suggestion any further. My thoughts on the topic can be divided as follows:

In favour of the book

• The seven Harry Potter books are probably the best-known novels in history. By 2019 their aggregated sales passed the 500 million mark and they have been translated into more than 80 languages. In discussing the morals and ethical positions taken by the characters, the writer can be assured of the familiarity of readers with its case studies and also be sure, at least initially, of a fairly high interest level.
  
  
• Many of the main characters in the series are quite nuanced, leading the reader to form an opinion of them which must later be revised. Likewise, many of the episodes represent opportunities in which characters have either applied principles from Avot or have conspicuously failed to do so.
  
  
• A considerable proportion of younger readers find traditional religious-interest story books hard to relate to, since they deal with kings, inn-keepers, wagon-drivers and tzaddikim who are not easily identified with figures in their own experience. Harry Potter however deals with schools and teachers, the problems faced in growing up and dealing with adults, and so on. 
  
  
• The notion of discussing critically the conduct of fictional characters is by no means unprecedented and can be a powerful way of conveying a mussar message. A recent example is Into the Woods, a movie in which characters from children's nursery tales are dramatically called to account for their often wrongful or immoral actions.

Against the book

• There is a risk that, irrespective of the quality and nature of the text, the book may create the impression of seeking to trivialise Avot and its many teachings.
  
  
• The book might be judged as being no more than an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Harry Potter.
  
  
• While many major issues and topics are reflected in the text of one or more of the seven-book series, there are some mishnayot and baraitot that have no obvious relevance to them.
  
  
• The book might not so much attract readers to think more about Avot and internalise its message but instead drive them back to reading and re-reading Harry Potter and other works of juvenile fantasy.
  
  
• Many parents are uncomfortable about their children reading books which lack any specifically Jewish content but which do discuss practices of witchcraft and wizardry that are plainly not encouraged by the Torah. 
  
  
• On a personal note, when this proposal was put to me, I experienced an uncomfortably high level of pride at having been asked which left me wondering whether, if I were to write this book, I would be doing so with the right motives. 

There is already a haggadah with a Harry Potter theme -- Moshe Rosenberg's An (Unofficial) Hogwarts Haggadah -- which does not seem to have brought about the apocalypse. Children from the most strictly orthodox families will in the main not have seen it and they would probably know little or nothing of Harry Potter anyway. In contrast, children from the least religiously oriented backgrounds would almost certainly welcome it as a pleasant distraction from the traditions of what, for the young, often seems an interminable evening. But there are many children in the middle, who read Harry Potter books but are expected to buy into their Jewish heritage too. And while the Pesach seder is only only once or twice a year, Avot applies 24/7, all year round, so the potential impact of a Potter-oriented Avot book is greater, as is the responsibility of getting it right.

So, blog readers, do please let me know: should I take the path of prudent caution and avoid this project like the plague -- or should I go ahead and embrace it with all my usually infectious enthusiasm?

When good news travels slowly

 Earlier today I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting Rabbi Yaacov Haber, a fellow Pirkei Avot enthusiast. I discovered that he is the author of a work on Avot, the first part (covering perakim 1-3) has already been published and the second part of which is in the pipeline. 

This book is Lev Avot: the commentary is in two parts. There is a concise commentary, itself titled Lev Avot, that provides an explanation based on classical sources. The second part, Banim al Avotam, frames the mishnayot within the context of the Tannaim who authored them. It's a lovely little book which, so far, I have found both enjoyable and informative. I was however saddened by the fact that, in the world of Pirkei Avot, there are so many books that, if one does not stumble across them by chance, one will never find. I have been reading works on Avot for decades and deeply regret the absence of accurate and timely information concerning the availability of new titles. This problem is not confined to Avot and is found elsewhere in Jewish literature, but it speaks badly of our ability to spread the word and share our thoughts and ideas with one another.  In secular fields like law, medicine and business studies, new books are soon discovered, publicized, reviewed and circulated. When we are dealing with books that have an impact on a person's life in this world and the next, should we not be equally efficient in spreading the relevant data?

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Part 1 of Lev Avot, by Rabbi Yaacov Haber, was published by TorahLab, Monsey, in 2007. ISBN 978-1-58330-967-4. It is available on Amazon here.

Whatever happened to the mamaloshen?

Looking through my collection of books and commentaries on Pirkei Avot, it suddenly dawned on me that something might be missing.  Not every commentary on Avot has been written in Hebrew. The Rambam's Pirush Mishnayot was originally penned in Arabic: the version we learn today is the translation of the ibn Tibon family, and Rabbi Yitzchak Magriso's Me'am Lo'ez on Avot was written in Ladino -- but in all the years I've been learning Avot I can't recall ever seeing any mention of a major (or even, for that matter, minor) commentary that was first written or published in Yiddish. 

Though I neither speak nor read Yiddish, I am curious to seek an explanation. There are many possibilities. For instance:

• There are no commentaries in Yiddish;
• There are commentaries in Yiddish but these add nothing to pre-existing commentaries in Hebrew and have therefore not been cited or discussed by later writers;
• Yiddish commentaries that were of interest or merit have already been translated into Hebrew and published in Hebrew but without any obvious reference to the fact that they were first published in Yiddish;
• Commentaries in Yiddish did exist but were all lost or forgotten during the Holocaust and the persecution of Jewish populations in the years leading up to it;
• I have seen footnoted references to such commentaries in Hebrew format but did not know that they were originally written in Yiddish.

My parents' generation spoke Yiddish and considered it the Queen of Languages. Its cadences, colourful expressions and egregious theft of words from other languages made it a source of pleasure, amusement and nostalgia for them -- and for very many it was their life membership badge, proof of their true Jewish status, long after any vestiges of religious practice had been cast off. It was the only language in which one could say "Oy!!, "Oy! Oy!" or "Oy! Oy! Oy!" with any degree of sincere conviction. Did this somehow disqualify it as a language fit for commentaries on Pirkei Avot?

Readers' comments are invited -- as are any references to works that fit the description above.