As I conjure that precious, long-ago image, one word wells up within me. Just one word: Dignity

As I sit at the desk in my study, I spy a sefer on a bookshelf just beyond arm’s reach. Of my many seforim on Chumash, this one sefer stands out for having gold-embossed lettering on the spine in both Hebrew and English. I scan the four words: Pentateuch. Hirsch. Then, in Hebrew, Sh’mos, and English, Exodus.

It’s the second volume of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on the five Chumashim, rendered into English by his grandson Isaac Levy. Published in London in 1967, this classic edition has since been joined by a more contemporary English translation that many find more accessible.

Perhaps. But I’ll continue to treasure this old-fashioned, thick blue volume, the last one still in my possession from the set of five that belonged to my mother, a”h (the other four now in the homes of grandchildren). As I run my hand over its cover, my mind’s eye replays a scene from my childhood home on Shabbos afternoon: Ima sitting at the dining room table, looking intently into the Hirsch Chumash open before her, seeking to glean something meaningful and usable, to take with her from that week’s parshah.

And as I conjure that precious, long-ago image, one word wells up within me. Just one word: Dignity.