[Avodah] One Of The Things Specifically Mentioned

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2016 at 09:46:09AM -0600, jay wrote:
: Not by anyone who has read The Kuzari.

To expand that reference, 2:80:

    79. Al-Khazari: I should like to ask whether thou knowest the reason
    why Jews move to and fro when reading the Bible?

    80. The Rabbi: It is said that it is done in order to arouse natural
    heat. My personal belief is that it stands in connexion with the
    subject under discussion. As it often happened that many persons
    read at the same time, it was possible that ten or more read from one
    volume. This is the reason why our books are so large. Each of them
    was obliged to bend down in his turn in order to read a passage,
    and to turn back again. This resulted in a continual bending and
    sitting up, the book lying on the ground. This was one reason. Then
    it became a habit through constant seeing, observing and imitating,
    which is in man's nature. Other people read each out of his own book,
    either bringing it near to his eyes, or, if he pleased, bending down
    to it without inconveniencing his neighbour. There was, therefore,
    no necessity of bending and sitting up. We will now discuss the
    importance of the accents, the orthographic value of the seven
    principal vowel signs, the grammatical accuracy resulting from them...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
micha at aishdas.org        about things most people don't watch even on
http://www.aishdas.org   Yom Kippur.
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