Q&A: A Bitter Mistake
A Bitter Mistake
Question
I’ve never had the experience of reading something the Rabbi wrote and thinking it was a fatal mistake, until I read that the Rabbi doesn’t see any benefit in publishing more books in the age of digital media.
Out of tremendous respect, I’ll say that this is a great loss to the public.
A: A book gives a broad and complete perspective, and has a far greater chance of making an impact than an article. No matter how amazing the structure of the Rabbi’s columns is, it doesn’t compare to the structure of a book that breaks down a broad topic into its components, with tedious but very useful introductions and preliminaries. It’s well known that there are people whose knowledge mostly comes from articles and Wikipedia entries. And usually their knowledge is only enough for conversation before the reader’s repetition during Sabbath services (sorry for the exaggeration).
B: Even complete digital books don’t always have the same effect as print; there’s something psychological about it. I bought a number of digital books in my life until I realized it’s just not the same thing. I have many friends who feel the same way, and when I suggested digital books to them, they said they simply can’t read that way.
(That’s why I might even buy a book collecting selected columns by the Rabbi.)
C: Even if it seems there’s no audience today, that isn’t true. The way the numbers are viewed is just different. Once, say, the Rabbi’s book sold 3,000 copies because people bought books back then—many of them simply gathered dust on the shelf (or, heaven forbid, in storage). Today, 500 copies might be sold, but those are read carefully from beginning to end, and then reread.
D: Those hundreds who still read books today then pass the information on to the broader public—in posts, articles, tweets, casual conversations, etc.—with a reach that the Rabbi can’t compete with on his own. And articles alone don’t give an influencer comprehensive knowledge on any topic the way the Rabbi’s books do.
E: Reading on Sabbath is a pleasure (I’m sure I’m not the only one who mainly reads on Sabbath).
I could sit and add many more reasons. The point is that the need for books today is no smaller than it once was, and maybe even greater, when influencers will read the book and spread its content all over the media.
Thank you
Answer
This point has already come up here several times in the past. There’s room to discuss each of your assumptions. I’m really not convinced by them. But beyond that, publishing a book costs a great deal of money and requires economic justification. The fact that there are few buyers means there’s no justification for publishing it.
Discussion on Answer
Maybe it would be worthwhile for the Rabbi to publish his books digitally and sell them at the same price, or close to it. I agree with what David says, and it seems to me that you do too, that there are topics that need a book in order to clarify them, and a column or even an article isn’t enough.
The Rabbi can write a digital book and you can print it 🙂
The Rabbi needs to take the profit into account [spiritual profit, of course]. The Rabbi has a body of thought, and presumably the Rabbi wants it to be received, and in my opinion the fact that the Rabbi does not publish his writings [and when I say writings, I mean specifically on the Talmud] causes people who come from a Torah background [the yeshiva world and the like] a great difficulty in this respect, because until now the only people from whom they received Torah, truth, were Torah scholars, and suddenly here is a rabbi with a doctorate—there’s a psychological difficulty here. And if the Rabbi were to publish books on the Talmud, it would be much easier for many people to connect to the Rabbi’s thought, and for the opposing side it would be much harder to argue against the Rabbi. Enough said.
It really is an unrewarding era for writers, especially in Hebrew.
As for the benefit — same here, and I know about myself that from the books I built a worldview / a broad picture of a specific topic. And from the fascinating columns, I mainly got conversation topics and a few halakhic or philosophical concepts and ideas, etc.
😉 Maybe you should monitor our questions and comments and sell targeted ads. One person gets tekhelet tzitzit, and another gets bacon jerky.