The purpose of this blog is for due respect at the Shabbat table. Please print, share, forward, etc.
As many authors know, the hardest thing about self-publishing is distribution.
Even in the age of Amazon, if you want exposure in the few remaining brick-and-mortar bookstores, it ain't easy.
In the summer of 5643 (1883), Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan published Volume I of his magnum opus, the Mishnah Berurah.
He then traveled personally from town to town to sell his books.
His previous book, the 1873 Chofetz Chaim, had been a best-seller.
In one town, he noticed a notice about himself that someone had posted in a shul.
It stated that the Chofetz Chaim was the author of two books, Chofetz Chaim and Mishna Berurah. He immediately took out a pencil and added a few words to the bottom of the notice:
It stated that the Chofetz Chaim was the author of two books, Chofetz Chaim and Mishna Berurah. He immediately took out a pencil and added a few words to the bottom of the notice:
"Only the first volume of Mishnah Berurah has been published so far."
First question for your table: Why would he do that?
The Chofetz Chaim did this so that people would not give him respect for something he had not yet done. He wanted them to know the exact truth about what he had written and what he had not yet written.
As the Talmud says, if a person knows one tractate of Talmud well and he arrives in a place where people honor him as though he were an expert in two tractates, he is obligated to say, “I know only one!”
Second question for your table: Do ordinary people face this kind of test of avoiding undue honor, or only the honorable ones like the Chafetz Chaim?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - https://cchf.global/
First question for your table: Why would he do that?
The Chofetz Chaim did this so that people would not give him respect for something he had not yet done. He wanted them to know the exact truth about what he had written and what he had not yet written.
As the Talmud says, if a person knows one tractate of Talmud well and he arrives in a place where people honor him as though he were an expert in two tractates, he is obligated to say, “I know only one!”
Second question for your table: Do ordinary people face this kind of test of avoiding undue honor, or only the honorable ones like the Chafetz Chaim?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - https://cchf.global/
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