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today I'm so excited because I will bring you along on a tour of a Jewish bookstore and I
will show you as well five things you will only find in an Orthodox Jewish Bookshop if you have
been here for a while first and foremost thank you so much for coming back to spend some time
with me it's so nice to be together again and if you're new hi my name is Sara Malka and on
my channel I share all facets of my Orthodox Sephardic Jewish Life as a full-time working
mom with small kiddos so please don't forget to leave this video a big thumbs up and consider
subscribing to our Channel let me put on a pretty tichel (headscarf) and let's jump into it
after driving to the next city in the heart of the Hasidic community we arrive at our favorite
Orthodox Jewish bookstore in that area and of course because it is a Jewish store you
will see a mezuzah on the doorpost greeting you the first thing you will see when you enter the
store are books of Tehillim or Psalms the book of Tehillim is one of the most important book
in our faith as we recite Psalms at any point in our day whether in a structured fashion as
they are part of the three prayers we recite daily morning afternoon and night we can also
recite Psalms at any point in our day to offer praise and thanksgiving to G.od or alternatively
in times of Crisis and need G.od forbids as a form of Supplication and even as a venue
to express regret for sins most Orthodox Jews will have a book of Tehillim with them whether
in the car at the office and of course at home The Book of Psalms come in all shapes and form
and also in many languages here we can find books of Tehillim in Hebrew Spanish French and English
Next to the Tehillim you will have the first item you will only find in an orthodox jewish Bookshop
and that is mezuzah covers you will find them in all styles and colors and they come in packs or
individually wrapped the scroll that goes in the mezuzah case is bought separately at the
Sofer or scribe who handwrites each scroll with a special quill and ink on a parchment
the Sofer will write the words of the Shema which is a central prayer in our Orthodox Jewish life
it is a prayer we recite two times a day in the morning and at night before going to bed
the cases usually are opaque to protect the scroll and come in different length to accommodate the
sizes of the scroll but the most common size is 15 centimeters I really love this model with the
shin like a fire with a background like the wall at the Kotel or the Wailing wall in Jerusalem what
do you think is it a Yay or Nay let me know in the comments below the next item you will find in
any Orthodox Jewish bookstore is our very special SIDDURIM ( plural of Siddur) or prayer books what
is interesting is that not all SIDDURIM or prayer books are the same as they cater to the needs
of the four main groups of Jewish Orthodoxy and we will find to what group The SIDDUR caters to
within the first pages of the SIDDUR in this first Siddur we see that it caters to our Ashkenazi
brothers and the NUSACH is Ashkenaz Nusach in Hebrew refers to the traditions of a group and
the text of the prayer used by by a community will be reflected in each prayer books or SIDDUR
here we see a SIDDUR used by our Hasidic brothers and their NUSACH is sfard
we also have the Chabad Orthodox Jews and their NUSACH is Ari and finally we have the Sephardic
Jews with our NUSACH which is called sfardi (Sephardi) or some will call it Edut Mizrachi you
might ask yourself why do we have different Nusach it is because albeit where all Orthodox Jews we
have different Traditions depending on what part of the world we come from all these Traditions
put aside there are no huge differences per se between the prayers the most common difference
between Siddurim will be the order of the prayer what Tehillim or Psalm is recited when some of the
words used in the prayers will differ as well as the tunes they are sang in will change from one
group to the next and this is why if you go to a Sephardic synagogue and then a Hasidic synagogue
for example the experience of the tefila or The Prayer Will differ quite a bit as with our tehilim
our Siddurim come in all kinds of designs and sizes as we always have a Siddur near us wherever
we go whether in hotels on vacation and of course we always have one in our car at work and at home
next to the Siddurim we have another item you will find in any good kosher bookstore and that
is the talit or shawl there are two kinds of tallit there is the tallit Katan or small shawl
which is the four corner garment with strings or petillim name attached to each Corner that are
Orthodox Jewish men wear under their clothes the other kind of Tallit is called the tallit
Gadol or large prayer shawl that men will wrap themselves in during the morning prayer most of
our Sephardic men will have both kind of tallit all in white and Ashkenazi and Hasidic Brothers
will have black lines on both kinds of tallit if the strings of the tallit get broken no worries
you will also find some replacement petillim or strings in this store you will also find some
tallit bag that men use to carry their tallit Gadol or prayer shawl Tefillin or phylacteries
as well as their sidurim or prayer book they also have everything that is needed to maintain their
Tefillin looking as new as possible with special Black Ink as well as repair pens
they also have beautiful little pockets to keep some tzedeka or charity money to give to
the people who are collecting for charitable organization every day in synagogue next to
the Tefillin maintenance kit you will have the second item you will only find in an Orthodox
Jewish Bookshop and that is Gartel these are special belt that Hasidic man will wear over
their Bekishe or Overcoat when they're praying if you ever saw any movies where they depict
Hasidim you will see them wrapping a black sash before praying and there is a running joke in
our community that the hasidim are wearing a Gartel because they attained a black belt in
prayer Arts but seriously what is the meaning of that sash there are many reasons and one of the
reason is that the Gartel is reminiscent of the belt which the Cohen or priest would wear during
their service in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem it is for this reason that many are particular
to wear their Gartel at elbow height just as the priests of old did the Gartels are usually black
but they come in white as well when they are worn over the white Kittle which is a special
white Overcoat hasidim where on certain holidays like Yom Kippur and Passover or pesach [Music]
next we have another item I am sure will not surprise you to be found in an Orthodox Jewish
bookstore and that is our written Torah and more specifically the 24 books which compose
are written Torah one of these 24 books is called the Chumash which is often referred to in most of
the world as the Old Testament we also have the other part of the written Torah which is called
ketuvim or writings that include all the megila like the Book of Esther and Ruth and finally we
have the book of neviim or prophets which includes the book of Yermiyahu or Jeremiah and so many more
or written Torah as we call it or Torah SheBichTav and its 24 books can be found in one concise book
called The Tanach which is an acronym for Torah Neviim and Ketuvim and if you see me at shul or in
synagogue you will see me with this book because it is a One-Stop shop for anything related to the
written Torah and I absolutely love it of course in an Orthodox Jewish Bookshop you will find the
oral Torah or Torah sheba'al Peh which includes the mishnah and the Talmud or Gemara usually the
Tanakh will be studied by men and women alike and to Talmud will mostly be studied by men
you will also find some Yarmulke or Kippah in an Orthodox Jewish bookstore which are hats worn by
men as a constant reminder to have reverence for the one above there are many kinds of Kippah but
an orthodox Circle you will find mostly the Black Velvet one for men the particularity of the kippah
worn by Orthodox Jewish men is that it is lined one side is the Velvet and the other side is
the Cotton the different styles of kippa usually varies between different Jewish denominations for
example the Orthodox Jewish men will wear a black velvet kippah and a crochet kippah will be worn
by more traditional Jewish men some men will even sleep with special cotton kippah like these ones
of course this could not be a kosher Jewish bookstore without a kids section you have
everything from baby's book to Children's novel and comic books all catering to our way of life
thank G.od our children are all avid readers like Daddy and Mommy so we
have no convincing to do for them to come with us to the Jewish bookstore
next to the children's book we will have the third thing you will only find in an Orthodox
Jewish Bookshop and that is kosher toys here the toys are geared to the Jewish Community
like these plush challah and cover kits so our children can prepare their own little
Shabbat meal they have pretend tallit or prayer shawls so our boys can imitate their daddy when
he wears his tallit during the prayer they also have learning games as well like the
alef beth Bingo and for the older children they have this aleph bet Wheels to learn the Jewish
alphabet as well as the vowels and for the adults we have Boggle in Yiddish and Hebrew
they also have amazing puzzles large and small for big and small children all with depiction of
beautiful scenery of our daily life like this one with the little Jewish boy sing Shema before going
to bed they have matching games for young and old like this travel set where you have to match the
rabbis they also offer electronic games in Yiddish and Hebrew as well as in English they have cute
music instruments like mini pianos as well as microphones with preset famous Jewish songs to
sing along we also have our own Playmobil sets and Little People sets with Jewish people in different
scenarios at home being a first responder with Hatzalah. (Jewish 1st responders) doing acts of
kindness and so many other things you might be asking yourself do we play with regular games
and the answer is yes we do play with brand name games and at the same time it is really fun for
the children to play with our kind of toys and games that represents what they see in their
life and reflect our values of course in a kosher bookstore you also find kosher cookbooks and like
we already discussed in our kosher kitchenware store the books are made to fit our kosher laws
and as you can see we have Sephardi Ashkenazi cookbooks low gluten paleo low carbs and so
much more to fit everyone's Kosher lifestyle like in a non-jewish bookstore we also have many other
kind of books whether self-help child rearing history Financial advice marriage advice books
novels and so much more maybe another question you have is are we allowed to read non-jewish
or secular books and the answer is yes we are particular about what we would read outside
of Jewish books as we want for the information to align with our beliefs so we'll buy cookbooks for
vegan let's say repair books craft books and other books which content is neutral
then we have the fourth item you will only find in an Orthodox Jewish Bookshop and that is orthodox
entertainment that includes music book on a CD and movies on USB Keys CD or dvd as many of our
Orthodox brothers and sisters do not have open access to the internet so they still listen to
music and watch videos through CDs and DVD players we have also our own Orthodox Jewish movies one
of my favorite is Ushpizin and I highly highly recommend it the other items you will find in
a Jewish author of bookstore is laminated prayers like the Shema and also laminated birkat Hamazon
or Grace after meal to protect them from Dirty Fingers or to protect them from the rain when
we are outside sitting in the sukkah and it is starting to rain at the end of the meal
in front of the store we have many things to beautify our house like Crystal candlesticks
as well as gorgeous silver trimming to add to the tallit Gadol or prayer shawls of our
husbands because the same way we Elevate our Shabbat table by putting beautiful glassware
flatware and challah board we also verify what we wear to serve G.od and that includes men
Tallit Gadol too and finally we arrive at the fifth item you will only find in an orthodox
jewish Bookshop and that is a Torah Yad or a Torah finger the man who reads directly
from the Torah scroll is called a Ba'al Koreh and he will use the Torah Yad because he does
not touch the parchment of the Torah with his bare finger because a tour scroll is so holy or
Kadosh in Hebrew therefore he can only touch it to the yad the Ba'al Koreh reads the Torah will
use the Yad to follow the words on the Torah scroll and he will sing the words of the Torah
following the ta'amim or specific tune this reading of the Torah is so special to us and
fills our heart and soul with the words of G.od all week long I'm curious to know what was the
item that surprised you the most in this Jewish bookstore please let me know in the comments below
thank you so much for being here it means the world to me and know that in my book by you being
you make this world and especially my world a better place to live in if you are here until the
end please write in the comments I LOVE BOOKSTORES so i know i was not alone and because I want for
you to always remember if nobody told you today know that YOU ARE LOVED AND YOU ARE ENOUGH just
the way you are until next time stay safe stay blessed and don't forget to FRUM IT UP [Music]
love you