2023-12-08

Jewish "Ark"

There are two things without which I might not have dared to leave Jerusalem two months ago for an extended period of time. The first is the fact that I was lucky enough to have studied Chabad Chassidus for three years in Jerusalem. Thanks to this study I feel I'll probably be able to live in any sociocultural environment as the life wisdom I've received from it protects me from "darkness" even in a totally non-Jewish environment.

The second is related to this first thing. It's part of the Chabad Chassidic library I built in the past five years or so - probably about 500 volumes in Hebrew, English, Russian and Yiddish. For the huge cost of sending them abroad and lack of space in the new location of my present personal mission I could only take about 80 volumes from this library, leaving the rest at my close Chabad friend's place in Jerusalem.

The last of the five parcels of these books I asked this friend of mine to send me finally arrived here this week. For the first time in two months I feel I'm again aboard a Jewish "ark" - a term Baal Shem Tov used for the study of Torah as an esoteric interpretation of Noah's ark. Here is the list of these 80 volumes in Hebrew, English, Russian and Yiddish.

I study some of them daily and some others weekly for my regular spiritual nourishment. But the most important thing is their very physical presence! It's so surrealistic that such quintessentially Jewish books are in such an isolated place in the Jewish world atlas. But precisely because of this physical isolation even a little light can help dispel darkness.