Page 6 - Ulpan-Or E-Tone 11.10.16 Advanced Level

E-Tone™: Ulpan-Or Weekly News Digest

Item #1 (Advanced Level)

Treasures of the National Library

Above ground, a book is a basic consumer product. Millions of books are
sold here every year. Below the ground - a dive into a different time,
where amazing treasures from days when a book or a letter were a one-
time thing hide. Along with three exceptional high-school students we got
a rare opportunity to touch findings that are of the most rare and expensive
in the whole world. We asked the people of the National Library to only
present us with priceless items. “Do you recognize what this is?” “It’s the
‘Hatikvah’.” “That’s right.” “But it’s not the same.” There’s only one copy
of the national anthem’s original text. Naftali Herz Imber named the poem
“Our Hope” and wrote ten verses for it. From the new Zionist Israeli
collection to the Judaic collection. When did you last read a Bible more
than a thousand years old? It was written in the Land of Israel and well
preserved, meticulously, in the Jewish community in Damascus. Such
meticulousness that Halel can easily read (his) Bar-Mitzvah section from
it. The National Library is moving to a new residence these days. It’s not
just a change of address, it’s a change in attitude as well. Soon anyone who
wants to will be able to come close to these treasures; not touch (them),
but look, read, be impressed with and touched by. In the meantime (these)
rare findings are going back to the basement - but not for eternity.

Page 6 - Edition 10-11-16

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