Dear Kehilla,

The past few weeks many schools celebrated “book week,” an annual event, that promotes the importance of reading.

While many books have brought so much vital and impotant information, it is the Torah that still holds the record of fetching the highest price ever spent on a book.

The Codex Sassoon, an ancient Hebrew Bible, is the most expensive book or manuscript ever sold, at $38.1 million USD, at a Sotheby’s auction in 2023.

The Codex Sassoon, a 1,100-year-old Tanach that is the earliest known complete Tanach manuscript. The codex is the world’s oldest nearly complete copy of the Tanach. It was handwritten roughly 1,100 years ago on 792 pages of sheepskin, includes all 24 sifrei Tanach and is missing only about eight pages. Its writing and layout is similar to the Torah scrolls read in shul.

The Parsha this week introduces the Laws of a Jewish King. In Jewish tradition, a king has a special responsibility to follow God’s laws. To help him remember this, the king is required to write two copies of the Torah.

This practice helps the king stay humble and focused on leading his people with wisdom and integrity. One copy stays in a safe place, like a treasure. The other copy goes with him everywhere, reminding him to make good choices and follow God’s teachings.

So, while one copy is always with the king, the other one is taken out only to check the validity of the Torah that the king has regularly. To make sure that the Torah the king is holding matches up, valid, and is still intact.

The fact that the king needs both Torahs teaches us a special lesson in life. The two Torahs represent the two lives we have. The life that we are living, and the life that we know we should be living. As we go through our daily lives, we must regularly check to see if the current day to day life lines up with the life that we promised ourselves we would live.

Every once in a while, we need to take a proper look at our life’s direction and make sure it lines up with our core values and ideals.

Having the Torah near the King all the time also teaches us the importance of studying the Torah daily. The Torah guides our lives, and if we ever face dilemmas or questions, we will always find answers and solutions within it. The king does this, and we should too.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman and Esty