Love to Read and Learn to Lead

Several years ago, after giving a class about David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weitzman, I was approached by a few people in the community. The individuals who approached me were highly accomplished and educated. They were highly successful professionals, yet during the class they realized something was missing. Despite many years of Jewish education, they felt woefully lacking in their understanding of modern Jewish History, of the seminal events and dates that have shaped the last 100 years and of the personalities that have been at the forefront of our Jewish narrative.

They wanted to start a book club and asked me to join. I am typically reticent to take on new obligations and commitments, but this one was too hard to pass up.

During my time in the book club, we read numerous books about various personalities and events, representing very different perspectives and viewpoints and covering ideas and topics that have profoundly challenged my way of thinking. The beauty of the book club was that it forced us out of intellectual autopilot. You read the book that was chosen, whether you liked it or not. We read some books that have long been on my “to-read” list and we read books that I never would have dreamt of reading. Sometimes I agreed with the author’s perspective and sometimes I vehemently disagreed. The common denominator has always been an opportunity to expand my thinking, challenge my assumptions, and engage in both rigorous and playful debate.

From the time I was very young, both of my parents, but particularly my father, instilled a love of reading in me that has, over time, become a critically important outlet. Some of my earliest memories involve coming down the stairs on a Sunday morning and seeing my father sitting at the table surrounded by a sea of newspapers, voraciously devouring as much information as possible. I remember the Shabbos we hosted Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveitchik in our home. He and my father stayed up into the wee hours of the morning conversing about and debating the books and articles they were reading, everything from religion to politics to interpreting history. Growing up, I lived in a house that was overflowing with books, and it seemed that the very first thing my father did before heading out on a vacation was carefully choose which book would keep him company along the way.

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that great readers often share a certain hunger for knowledge. One famous example appears in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, “Team of Rivals,” where she tells a story about Abraham Lincoln, who once borrowed Parson Weems’s Life of George Washington from Josiah Crawford, a well-to-do farmer who lived sixteen miles away:

Thrilled by this celebrated account of the first president’s life, he took the book to his loft at night where, by the light of a tallow candle… he read as long as he could stay awake, placing the book on a makeshift shelf between the cabin logs so he could retrieve it at daybreak. During a severe rainstorm one night, the book was badly soiled and the covers warped. Lincoln went to Crawford’s house, explained what had happened, and offered to work off the value of the book. Crawford calculated the value of two full days’ work pulling corn, which Lincoln considered an unfair reimbursement. Nevertheless, he straightaway set to work and kept on until “there was not a corn blade left on a stalk.”

Lincoln was obsessed with books, but his access to those books never came easy and was never cheap. Thankfully, we live in an opposite reality. Never in history have we had easier and more open access to information and knowledge, whether seforim, books, newspapers, or endless digital resources. And yet, are we doing enough to challenge ourselves to be lifelong learners, expand our minds, and explore new worlds?

After all, we are the “people of the book.” As the Torah relates, “And the boys grew; and Esav was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Yaakov was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.” (Bereshit 25:27). If any nation has sought out wisdom and placed a central focus on reading and study, it’s been the Jewish people. And yet, the great irony of my book club’s inception was that here were very accomplished and successful individuals who admittedly felt they lacked the basic understanding and appreciation of our modern history.

As we begin to enter the summer months, when schedules become a bit lighter and when our children’s schedules will be less demanding, it’s a wonderful opportunity to challenge ourselves and our families to read and learn more. If you are among those interested in seizing this opportunity, some points to consider:

1. First, and most obviously, we should be exploring our sacred Jewish texts. For thousands of years, Torah study was accessible primarily to only a select, educated few. That is no longer the case. No matter your background or skill level, Artscroll, Koren and other publishers have made Torah accessible to us in an unprecedented way. There is simply no longer any excuse not to, so we must not squander that opportunity.

2. The Torah tells us תמיד עיני ה' אלוקך בה, the Land of Israel is always at the forefront of God’s consciousness. We should make sure it’s at the forefront of ours as well. Read books about modern Jewish history, understand and appreciate the events and personalities that have shaped Israel and our current reality, and better appreciate the nuanced complexity of what you may be reading in the news.

3. Vary your reading: Expand beyond your comfort zone and read books that you wouldn’t ordinarily read. Instead of reverting to the same authors sharing the same perspectives, try something new. Explore ideas that challenge our assumptions and read authors who come from different backgrounds and perspectives.

Business guru John Maxwell writes in one of his books, “I don’t know about you, but I’m still learning. Moreover, the day I stop reading, the day I stop learning, that’s the day I stop leading and likely the day I stop breathing.”

To be a Jew has always meant to remain intellectually alive, curious, searching, studying, and growing. In an age of unprecedented access to knowledge, perhaps our greatest challenge is not access, but appetite. The question is whether we will fully embrace it.