By A. Z. Narrow
Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zt’l, always spoke his mind. Afraid of no person and no topic, he was a relentless force for Torah truth. From his humble shul in Brooklyn, he launched a revolution of thought–bold Torah ideals in simple English–that simply, amazingly, changed the Jewish world.
He was a prolific writer. And fearless. His written words filled more than a dozen volumes in Hebrew and English. All of them were published–except one.
As you flip the pages of The Unpublished Manuscript of Rabbi Avigdor Miller, now available in a limited edition of 500 leather-bound copies from Yeshiva Gedolah Bais Yisroel, you are struck by how neat his handwriting is. The Rav could write for pages and pages without so much as a typo, let alone a major edit. His manuscript has barely a cross-out or correction, and it is nearly free of grammatical errors. The text reads beautifully, eloquently, legibly, page after page. This, in a first draft never intended for mass release.
In this heirloom edition, each handwritten page is reproduced exactly. Yes, those are water stains on a few pages, wrinkles on a few others. You see the lines of the loose leaf paper the Rav wrote on and feel as if you are looking over his shoulder as he writes.
Give credit to the Rav’s family: the presentation is impressive; the final product a handsome 8.5” x 11” sefer, beautifully bound in leather; valuable enough and durable enough to treasure and pass along for generations. You can sense the time invested, selecting the special paper and the fine leather for the cover.
You’ll also note 30 plus pages are missing; left blank, presumably to be completed “someday.” The last page ends abruptly in mid sentence. But what is present and complete is simply striking: more than 100 handwritten pages by one of the world’s most influential Gedolim. The topic: the most difficult to speak about. Yet the Rav “speaks” about it at length, in detail–his knowledge of history, Jewish and secular, is extraordinary.
The story unfolds, detail after detail. The book refuses to be put down. You begin to sense why, perhaps, he held it back, waiting for enough time to pass.
Now, more than 10 years after his passing, and some 50 years after it was written, it is time for Rabbi Avigdor Miller’s personal history of the origins of the Holocaust to be shared. Collectors and Rabbi Miller buffs will welcome the publication of a limited edition of 500 copies–perfect reproductions of the original handwritten manuscript.
The handwritten heirloom edition of The Unpublished Manuscript by Rabbi Avigdor Miller is available from Yeshiva Gedolah Bais Yisroel for a dedication of $500. Edition strictly limited to 500 copies. Call 718-258-7400 or e-mail rmtapes@yahoo.com.
