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Last update - 00:00 05/03/2008
Home Libraries: Haim Sabato
Haim Sabato: Teacher and writer, Ma'aleh Adumim, author of 'Adjusting Sights' and 'The Dawning of the Day.'
Estimated number of books: 5,000.
Genres: Judaism, liturgical poetry and literature.
Languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and a little Arabic.
Classification method: According to subjects and convenience for work.
Lending policy: None.
Oldest book in the library: "Torat Moshe, by Rabbi Moshe Alsheikh, printed over 400 years ago. One evening, I was praying in a neighborhood synagogue in Kiryat Yovel in Jerusalem, and I saw a pile of torn old books designated for geniza (burial of old sacred texts). As usual I went to look, and the Alsheikh with its crumbling binding immediately caught my eye. I opened it and was amazed to see it had been printed in Venice in 1603."
Most expensive book: "I was a kid, a yeshiva boy, without a penny to my name. I had a great desire to buy an entire set of the Vilna Shas [Talmud], published by the widow and brothers Re'em. The 20 volumes of the Talmud with the commentary of Alfasi and all his interpreters. It cost 300 lirot, and I had nothing. But I knew how to study Gemara. I made my way every day on foot to Jerusalem neighborhoods to give private Talmud lessons to the sons of professors, and I added my pennies together and bought it."
Favorite writers: "Ibn Gabirol, S.Y. Agnon and Moliere."
Favorite books: "Everything written by Maimonides, the Vilna Gaon's comments on the Shulhan Arukh, the liturgical poetry of the Ben Kohelet by Rabbi Shmuel Hanagid. Sefer Haredim by Rabbi Elazar Azkari, Mesilat Yesharim by the Ramhal [Rabbi Moshe Haim Luzzatto], the books of Rabbi Haim David Azulai, all of Agnon, the stories of Ben Yehezkel, the ballads of Shimshon Meltzer, Moliere's plays."
Book with the most beautiful binding: "The binding of the Pesach Haggadah in Arabic from Aleppo, with its beautiful colors and decorations. It was recently restored by artist Abraham Shemi-Shoham and published by the World Center for the Heritage of Aleppo Jewry."
Books you return to most often: "The Mishna, the Talmud, Maimonides, the poems of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, S.Y. Agnon."
Favorite line from among the books in your library: "From Maimonides? Sefer Hamada [Book of Knowledge]: 'It is clear that love of God does not become a part of a person until he is sufficiently uplifted by it always and abandons everything in the world except for it. But [love of God] is contingent on one?s knowledge of Him; if a little, a little, and if a lot, a lot.' And from 'Path of the Just': ?Behold how beautiful my world is, be sure not to destroy my world.'"
Most meaningful dedication: "I was a young yeshiva boy when Rabbi Yehuda Halevi's 'Kuzari? was published by Dvir, translated by Prof. Yehuda Even Shmuel Kaufman. I inhaled the book in one night and was tremendously excited. I wrote the translator a letter. Immediately after, the Yom Kippur War broke out. When I came home on leave, Shlomo Zalman Shragai called me and told me excitedly that Prof. Kaufman wanted to meet me and give me a gift. He said that he had written the translation over a period years, reciting a few lines to himself every morning at dawn. And this is what he wrote in his dedication: 'To the one who sings a song of longing when hearing the voice while walking in the garden, who awoke to these longings when he perused the Kuzari, which is the Song of Songs for the elect of humanity who have had the privilege of hearing and being heard, to Haim Sabato, with the blessing "May your spirit rise"!' Shortly afterwards he passed away."
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