Q&A: Reading the Rabbi’s Books in the Bathroom
Reading the Rabbi’s Books in the Bathroom
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I recently bought several of your books: the trilogy, ‘God Plays Dice’, ‘The Science of Freedom’, and ‘Truth and Unstable’.
Is it permitted to read the books in the bathroom? Seemingly, regarding the second and third books in the trilogy at least, this is forbidden…
And regarding ‘GPD’, does the name constitute one of the divine names that may not be erased, with all that goes along with that? [And if so—why write it with a ‘h’ and not a ‘k’, since there is concern about disrespect, erasure, bringing it into the bathroom, etc.?]
Or perhaps the term ‘God’ in the context of the book refers to a deistic/theistic god who created and designed the world but not the Holy One, God of the Hebrews (as you wrote in the introduction), and therefore the Rabbi holds that in this context the term ‘God’ is secular language?
Thank you!
Discussion on Answer
And I came only to point out that even in the bathroom one should be careful not to ponder what form a boggart takes (a creature that changes into the form of the thing most feared by the person standing before it) when no one sees it, because from that one might come to thoughts about trees falling in the forest and the relation between content and representations, etc.’
In my opinion, there is a problem reading all these books in the bathroom, because even if their content as such is permitted, logically they may cause you to think about words of Torah in the bathroom.
Personally, I recommend taking Harry Potter into the bathroom, a wonderful book