Heirlooms and Ephemera Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein 4 August 2007

So John Lennon’s glasses sold for £1 million. I have a pair of Buddy Holly specs I wore in the early 60’s: I wonder how much I could get for them on e-bay. It is surely amazing the value that can be put on mere objects just by their provenance. Tuesday Sharon and I went with visiting American friends, Rabbi Larry Englander and his wife Cheryl to the Cotswolds and stopped by Yarnton Manor, the home of the Oxford Centre for Post- graduate Hebrew studies. And in the Library a growing number of the libraries of well-known figures. At one end of the building, part of the library that once graced the short lived 19 th century Judith Montefiore Rabbinic College in Ramsgate. (It gives me a thrill to see it as I played a modest part in saving the collection from being shipped to America). The core of that collection is formed by the library of Leopold Zunz, truly one of the founders of Reform Judaism in Germany in the 19 th century, one of the great and famous intellectuals of that age. And there on the flyleaf of his books a neat signature “L.Zunz” in fading ink. No doubt you could do a thesis on the books in his library; what they show of his personality and thought. But then how many books with “L.Zunz” on the flyleaf were lent by him to others and never returned, nowadays precious volumes on a book collector’s shelf.

At the other end of the Library two newer collections: the libraries of Rabbis Hugo Gryn and Louis Jacobs. No time to browse Hugo’s books, but a little time to walk down the many shelves housing Louis Jacob’s books. And it was a thrill to do so, felt as if you were in the presence of this great Jewish scholar; and of course, for me all the more real, because he had been my Talmud teacher at Leo Baeck College and his signature is on my semicha, my rabbinic ordination certificate downstairs on my office wall. When Louis Jacobs first started teaching us, you will remember he had just been denied principal ship of Jews College, the pulpit of St John’s Wood United Synagogue, and probably the Chief Rabbinate. There had been a well publicised scandal…..and here was this star walking into our modest classroom to teach us four Progressive Jewish students, each one of us beginners in the world of rabbinic literature….it was an awe-inspiring moment. And he was a great teacher and immensely patient, for realistically we, as students, were nowhere near his league. But he never embarrassed any of us, and ever after remained friendly. As I walked through his library I recalled the great breadth of his knowledge and ability to quote from all sorts of literature. I had read his books and assumed he wrote them with an anthology of quotations by his side, but soon realised he was quoting from memory bon motes from Talmud, Shakespeare, Coleridge and the Beatles, and he had read this wide range of literature.

A cursorily glance at the selection of books revealed Louis Jacobs catholic tastes, which seemed to bear out this reminiscence of him: there were long shelves of rabbinic literature, all in Hebrew, many of the titles I had never heard of. And then the sort of books that predominate my working library, books of history, festivals, simple “how to do Judaism” books. Then I remembered this great Talmud scholar and teacher of Kabbalah, had also written simple textbooks as well as learned tomes on quite obscure Chassidic figures. I didn’t find John Lennon’s comic book “In My Own Write”, nor a showcase with an item of Beatles memorabilia, though I did recall that Louis Jacob’s shul was almost next door to the Abbey Road studio where the Beatles recorded their hits.

Since the visit I have been musing on what makes an object valuable. A pair of spectacles or a library of books…..or a stamp collection or a prize certificate from school, or a faded photograph of a distant relative we barely knew.

And where does this nostalgic musing lead me this Shabbat morning. Our Torah portion reminded us of signs and symbols, tefillin and mezuzot, objects if invested with the right meaning can add so much to our religion and our lives. Our Haftarah reminded us that stories too are important, and especially stories of those who went before us, giving us a place in the otherwise rapid passage of time. “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were cut! Look back to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you!” (Isaiah 51)

I can image the thrill some people will get from owning or holding or even seeing John Lennon’s glasses, was it the same thrill I got from opening one of Leopold Zunz’s books or standing between the shelves of Louis Jacob’s library? The difference is one can stop and open the books and the experience moves beyond mere nostalgia. And we can also learn from the stories they tell: from Zunz, the founder of Wissenschaft dem Judentums, the Science of Judaism: that the intellectual approach has its place. From Jacobs, also an expounder of that Science: that too and also that mysticism, Talmudic logic, Maimonides, and yes Mancunian humour have much to teach, and probably also a few lines from a Beatles song. But above all we can learn from the privilege of personally knowing such a man, the most important lesson: beyond beyond being a scholar it is to be a mensch, and Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs was a mensch indeed and the memory of such a man is worth far more than a million pounds sterling.