{"id":3587,"date":"2008-07-29T08:22:16","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T16:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=3587"},"modified":"2008-07-29T08:22:16","modified_gmt":"2008-07-29T16:22:16","slug":"rabbi-hillel-goldberg-finishes-his-new-book-on-the-vilna-gaons-thoughts-on-the-mikveh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=3587","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Hillel Goldberg Finishes His New Book On The Vilna Gaon’s Thoughts On The Mikveh"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Rocky Mountain News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It’s Sunday morning in the rabbi’s office, and in his hands Goldberg holds his new 494-page book, Hallel Hakohen.<\/em> Goldberg has written other books. As editor of the Intermountain Jewish News,<\/em> he writes all the time, in English and Hebrew. But this book is different: It took six years of his life, 12 drafts and thousands of discarded pages, now packed away in boxes, stacked floor to ceiling.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Goldberg’s feat was honored at the East Denver Orthodox Synagogue in a siyyum ceremony, which is done at the completion of any task.<\/p>\n

The task? It’s a journey not to the Himalayas or into a mathematical conundrum, but deep inside the mind of a brilliant 18th century Jewish scholar and mystic known as Vilna Gaon (the genius of Vilna).<\/p>\n

"The Gaon" wrote the definitive treatise on Jewish law, which is based on the 613 laws God gave to Moses. Trouble is, the Gaon wrote in fragments, in a kind of code, which hordes of scholars have been trying to unlock ever since.<\/p>\n

"Everybody knew he was an unbelievable genius," Goldberg says, "but nobody could understand what he was saying!"<\/p>\n

Goldberg decided to try to unravel one of the Gaon’s 1,500 or so chapters.<\/p>\n

"I entered this project with extraordinary naivete," he grins, with all the boyish enthusiasm of an adventurer tackling a sheer icewall. "You know what I thought at the beginning? I’m running a newspaper; I don’t have time anymore to write books . . ."<\/p>\n

He tackled the chapter on mikvahs, purification pools prescribed by Jewish law for women’s monthly ritual bathing. In a new Orthodox community, a mikvah is built before the first synagogue and is essential to Jewish family life, Goldberg, an adviser to a newly built Denver mikvah, explained to me in 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Rocky Mountain News: It’s Sunday morning in the rabbi’s office, and in his hands Goldberg holds his new 494-page book, Hallel Hakohen. Goldberg has written other books. As editor of the Intermountain Jewish News, he writes all the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[10763,10759,10762,10760,10761,2409],"class_list":["post-3587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rabbis","tag-definitive-treatise","tag-hillel-goldberg","tag-intermountain-jewish-news","tag-rabbi-hillel","tag-rocky-mountain-news","tag-vilna-gaon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t