jewish@edu on Broadway!"-variety "The best new i C'ArcH 1 I tIE for college students by college students Burying Books U-M Hillel students have a new experience with a discomforting, yet respectful tradition. By Daniel Chudnow and Jessica Curhan } jewish@edu Staff Writers he day before we returned to our classes after winter break, more than a dozen University of Michigan students and Hillel's Rabbi Seth Winberg gathered at a large open pit on the far edge of a snowy cemetery in Mount Clemens. We unpacked a truck full of hundreds, maybe thousands, of worn-out religious books and buried them. We all shared a particular feeling of dis- comfort. This wasn't the usual somber ceme- tery environment. Instead, we were enjoying ourselves a little, and at first that made us uncomfortable. (Remember, we are students and discarding books is a fantasy of ours!) As a group, we are different ages, from different areas and brought up in different denominations of Judaism, but we were all raised with this same idea: Books should be treated with respect — especially books with God's name in them. We were taught that religious texts should not be placed on the ground, let alone tossed into a pit. The meaning behind burying old books is that we treat books with the same respect we do deceased human beings. And yet, the actual burial set us on edge. Seeing a large pit in a snowy field filled with hundreds of disheveled books reminded us of mass graves of people, which confused our sense of doing something respectful and dignified. We also were raised to expect liturgy for almost every aspect of life, so the lack of liturgy was resounding. When we started, we just started; and when we were done, we just left. No blessing, no Kaddish. However, after more thought, the ele- ments that troubled us were exactly what T Fisher Theatre • May 7-19 Fisher Box Office, ticketmaster.com & 800-982-2787 Info: BroadwaylnDetroit.com & 313-872-1000 Groups (12+): Groups@BroadwaylnDetroit.com or 313-871-1132 •• • • • • • 0 " 000000 f • • • • • • • IP di • • • _ • • • • • ' . • • • • • • •• • • • 9 ,4). • SCOTT COMM I - • 20% OFF a ' - they should have been. After the soul departs the body, the body has lost its pur- pose and so it is buried. Like a body, a book is buried when it has lost its utility. Putting a book in the ground may make us uncom- fortable, and it may seem more respectful to keep a book forever; but once it can no longer be studied, only burial shows proper respect. For someone raised without the stigma attached to putting books on the ground, burying a book might not produce that same discomfort. But the discomfort of the act expresses the very respect that is the goal of the act. The discomfort of burying the books can remind us that we wish to keep books useable for as long as we can — to avoid the loss as long as possible. The fact that we are going out of our way to a place both physically and emotionally far from our routine to perform this ritual is the act of respect. Burying books sparked our interest in a topic we otherwise probably would not care to study (and we did study more about book burial last Shabbat). It is experiential Judaism like this that gives us, no matter how old or educated, new insight into our religion. @ U-M Hillel thanks Detroit's Council of Orthodox Rabbis and Rabbi Boruch Levin of Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak Park for helping to arrange this book burial. Daniel Chudnow of West Bloomfield is in University of Michigan's nuclear engineer- ing master's program. Jessica Curhan West Bloomfield is a U-M senior. sTORMIbE April 26, 27 & 29 Fri & Sat 10-8 Sun 12-5 • 1..)` -.- 4/$ ''' • • hi 7117,..,„,' • • isk•s• w .,. dis Or • a • a el• • a • I • * ir • •• 0 0000 • il, 4 ••. • • • • . • 4 . r• • • • • • • • • • • • * • • • • • • • • • • .... 20411 Farmington Rd. Livonia, MI • 248-476-1262 www.scottcolburnwestern.com OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 40 ,pri118 • 2013 JN 1 Left of truck: Sophomore Channa Schramm, Columbus, Ohio; Daniel Chudnow; sophomore Sarah Garibova, Ann Arbor. Center in green jacket: graduate student Ronit Greenberg, Suwanee, Ga. Right: junior Avielle Movsas; Southfield; sophomore Atara Lakritz, West Bloomfield; and Jessica Curhan. of