What’s Hard About Learning Traditions From Books

I got a DM yesterday that said, “yo what's the best way for me to learn about judaism? any particular book you'd recommend besides the torah?”

My reaction to it has been instructive and kind of embarrassing with regard to how to handle deep knowledge bases.

My response was, “mmm i don’t really know, i didn’t learn about it from a book,” but I’d say that was a sublimation of an annoyance reaction into a kind of teachable-moment.

“This is my CULTURE. It’s the full spectrum of LIFE. What book could I possibly give you?”

Of course, if the querent had said “Zen” instead of Judaism, I would have given him one in a second.

Now, it’s TRUE I didn’t learn about Judaism from any intro to Judaism book, and I would have no clue where to start finding one. But, obviously, other people do.

I would have the ability to ensure that, among the many intro to Judaism books that must be out there, this person would get a good one.

Now, that would turn me into a googling machine performing menial mind-labor on behalf of My People™, which sucks, so I didn’t.

But for Zen books, I’d be able to do it, because I read those. Then I started DOING Zen and joining sanghas, and eventually became a student of a teacher and took precepts and stuff, so now it’s my way of life, too. But when someone asks for a book, I say, “Sure!” (and then I recommend Sensei’s book.)

I mean, in fairness, I also say, “You literally can’t learn this from books, but if it’ll get you started, fine.” But Zen is kind of a special case there.

My question for myself is, is Judaism a special case, too, or was I simply feeling defensive of something?

OR, is my instinct the RIGHT one, and am I way too flippant about being like, “Oh, sure, an Eastern tradition I kinda half-sideways know something about. Read this.”

And how much of that goes on out here on the Spiritual Internet?

It’s deeply related to the problem of finding a teacher as an adult, whether it’s a rabbi, a Zen teacher, or something else.

Children can learn all over the place and by accident and from everybody, like I did. I can’t teach that to someone starting from near-0 as an adult. For them, the best teacher might be someone who learned the same way they’re learning.