“La’asok B’diveri Torah; To immerse oneself in the words of Torah”

We were getting our school books about a week ago and walking back, spotted an art fair. Stopping by, I quickly saw that this was not the kind of work that tickled my fancy. However, I noticed a used book store and decided to stop in (I’ve read so many books about people collecting used books, as well as the allure of them that I needed to check out the claim myself. Walking in, I was assaulted by the wonderful scent of books. Books carry a certain smell that just gets into your senses and truly fills you up, making me feel full and happy. Heading downstairs, I plopped down on the floor in front of a huge bucket of Machzorim (I was looking for children’s books). Rifling through them, I found ones of all different shapes and sizes, from all different years. Right above, I found used Talmud sets, with only one of many books present. I wanted to buy one, because of the power I felt from them, but was reassured that I would have a much better opportunity to attain my own set soon enough.

            However, the power in the history of my people, set among used fiction, biographies, children’s books and more, was captivating. I felt at home in my body, in this small bookstore off of King George Street. I could have stayed there for a long time, wandering aimlessly through the shelves and exploring what was at my fingertips. How incredible that such a small, literal hole in the wall could be a haven for someone like me, truly invoking my attention and propelling my interest (in a similar way that finding a connection between Hebrew verbs does).

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            So Hebrew verbs. I’m writing this blog and get to a word, to notice. Every other word in the sentence was one I knew in Heberw, except the verb, to notice. Of course, because I am in Israel and actively engaged in attempting to learn Hebrew, I needed to look up the word and figure out what it was. As Hebrew is a language of connection and continuity (for the most part), I then found that the word for to notice (l’havchein) was from the same shoresh, or root, as the verb to examine, or to test (leav-hon) and related to the words for quiz (bo-han) and test (miv-han). The connections, kesherim, are abounding and therefore excite me so much that I can find those connections and then use them to learn about other similar words and increase my vocabulary.