Want to Sell More Jewish Books? Give them Away for Free.

As the Mishnah Yomit cycle nears the conclusion of Seder Zeraim, I found myself looking for a resource that could help visually represent some of the more confusing aspects of Masechet Shabbat for my MishnahYomit video series on YouTube. (This is a great opportunity to join the program! Shabbat begins next Monday, February 22nd!) By the way, the website, Mishnah.co, will finally be up very soon! Last Friday I was in Yerushalayim for a Shiva visit, and took the opportunity to browse a Sefarim store to see what I could find. I found a wonderful series that I had known about called "Mishnah Behirah".

In Israel, people consider this a "youth" Mishnah series. I think that's far from the truth. Yes, there are pictures, but often pictures represent the very best way to visualize a complex idea. In addition, the series includes wonderful charts that display the information in the Mishnah in an organized fashion. I'm really into charts - and will often take a Mishnah and make it into a chart just to understand it better. So I bought the Mishnah, hoping to share some of the visuals on the Mishnah videos.
In the past, I would have just taken pictures and shared them without asking. I have recently become more careful about using other peoples' information without permission, so I called the Chorev publishing house in Jerusalem to ask permission to use their pictures. (Naively, I was hoping that they'd share the pictures with me, so that I wouldn't have to take pictures of the page...) The answer was immediate: No. We don't give permission to anyone to use our images. We've invested a great deal of time, effort and energy in compiling and producing this series, and we don't share it with anyone ever. After futilely trying to argue my case for about ten seconds, I gave up. My videos will have to include my own pictures, or whatever I can find on the web. I won't be using their pictures without their permission.

From one perspective, I understand their point of view. After all, if they would let me use their material, they might as well let everyone use it. Heck, they might as well just put up a website and give away their material for free! Why would anyone then buy their books?

Yet, I believe that in today's day and age, their logic - rather than saving them money - is actually costing them money in sales, publicity and distribution. My proof? Peninei Halachah from Rav Melamed.

If you haven't heard of this series, Peninei Halachah is, by far, the most popular set on Halachah in the Religious Zionist community in Israel today. Its popularity stems first and foremost from the fact that Rav Eliezer Melamed is a great posek blessed with a gift of not only communicating the halachah, but also explaining the beauty and logic behind the halachah. Over a period of many years, Rav Melamed wrote a weekly column in the B'sheva weekly paper which ultimately grew into the Peninei Halachah series sold around the world (a few volumes are even available in English). Yet, despite the fact that the books are sold for money, the entire text is available for free over the internet, on his website as well as in a free Android app. I would argue that rather than hinder sales, his free distribution model is precisely what has made his books so popular and boosted his sales significantly - in the unique market that of Jewish religious texts.

Most people don't read through Judaic texts straight. You don't buy a five volume set of Chumashim and then read through them. You use them when needed - as references. Sure, your daughter might be studying Shemot in high school. But we buy the full set of Mikraot Gedolot, and leave them on the shelf to be used when necessary.

With the advent of the internet, I imagine that people have been buying fewer and fewer books. And newspapers are indeed dead as we used to know them. But the religious Jewish community still needs its books for two reasons: despite the ubiquitousness of the web (and the fact that I teach Mishnah via YouTube), there's still no substitute for the actual book itself. Truth be told, I really don't enjoy reading on a Kindle that much. And there's always Shabbat - when we do a good chuck of our learning. So, despite the fact that the entire Kehati is available for free download for your phone, people continue to buy Kehati Mishnayot. I'll learn on my phone if I'm stuck somewhere. But I'll always prefer studying in an actual book - whatever the size.

This was my argument to the Mishnah Behira guy: Rather than hurting your sales, if you give away your material, more people will know about the books, and more people will then buy them to study a particular masechet. Of course some people won't. But in the end, I believe that good Sefarim have a future in the small market that is the religious community, and that rather than hurting a publisher, giving away access to material can actually be an important tool that drives sales of the books themselves. Who knows? If you get popular enough, maybe a well-known foundation will give you millions of dollars to publish your series online.

If the web has taught us anything, it's that nowadays, there's more than one way to sell a Jewish book.

Hadran Alach!

As the rabbi of YIOP, each morning we would study two mishnayot after davening. Over the years, we covered much of shas, but never finished it, because I skipped Taharot, fearing it two esoteric and complicated to explain in a five-minute shiur.
When we made aliyah about five years ago, we had gotten to the middle of Moed (or somewhere thereabouts), and I decided to continue learning those two Mishnayot each day (6 days a week). This time I didn't skip Taharot, and with the help of some picture books (primarily for Oholot), this morning I finished Shisha Sidrei Mishnah for the first time in my life.
On one hand, I feel great. It's a wonderful accomplishment and a testament to the power of learning a little bit each and every day. At the same time, I'm a little bit embarrassed that it took me over forty years to finish Shas Mishnayot. (Mom, I blame you.)
At the same time, as I've blogged about earlier, I've been learning Mishnah Yomit with my second son since the cycle began in Berachot - and we're now well into Nezikin. And my eldest saw us learning and he decided to study four mishnayot a day, a torrid pace that brought him to complete Shas over Shavuot, a feat that gives me great pride. I'm much, much prouder about his siyyum than I am about mine.
I guess that's reason enough to feel good.

הדרן עלך ששה סדרי משנה.

דעתן עלך ששה סדרי משנה.

לא נתנשי מינך ששה סדרי משנה.

לא בעלמא הדין ולא בעלמא דאתי.

Mishnah Yomit Follow Up

Got the following Questions via email, so I thought that I'd share:

Rav Reuven,
We’ve tried this – but we just end up with so many questions.  We’ve used Art Scroll, Kehati, and even the extremely thorough site of Rabbi Pogrow - www.mastertorah.com/.
But, how do you get thru it?  Do you just gloss over the questions?
Per your post, you’re about to start Arba Avos Nezikin.   Will you discuss the machlokes Rav and Shmuel?  And that there aren’t really 4? Will you discuss how the mishna attempts to derive one from the others – in only a half-hearted manner?   So many more  questions– how do get thru it?
Finally, would you be willing to open your blog to mishnayos questions? Or do you know someone who would?
Thanks,
Phil Goode.
P.S.  I was not able to post this as a comment on your blog since I don't have a blog ID.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the email. From my perspective, at some point, you're not learning Gemara, you're learning Mishnah, so you can't answer every question. Mishnah is more about information than about gaining a complete understanding of very complex issues. 

Personally, Bezalel and I learn the Mishnah, and then read Kehati's commentary. Usually we don't go any deeper than that. I think if I (or he) drew it out any longer than that, we'd have never made it this far. We usually learn about 15 minutes a day (on average), and that seems about right to me for mishnah yomit.

Re your last point, I don't think my blog is the best place for mishnah questions, but if you want to ask via email, I'm happy to try and answer.

Reuven Spolter

Mishnah Yomi with a Child. Just Do It.

Almost two and a half years ago, I started doing the Mishnah Yomi program together with my son Bezalel, when the cycle began at Brachot. (He reads, and I listen and comment ever so often). While he at first resisted, after about a week he came to value it about as much as I do. We're now almost three Sedarim in, hoping to finish Masechet Kiddushin later this week and begin Seder Nezikin.

While the learning itself is good (and important), I'd like to put in a plug to you, my reader, to give the father-son (or mother-son, or father-daughter, or mother-daughter) Mishnah Yomit a try. I can give you quite a large number of reasons:
1. Systematically working through Mishnah exposes you to a wide variety of topics and subjects and gives you a sense of the scope of halachah and Jewish law.
2. It only takes a few minutes a day
3. Like daf Yomi, the fact that it's a daily program, forces one to learn even a little bit each day. Unlike Daf Yomi, it's only two mishnayot. Bite size chunks.
4. Even though I didn't think that I had the time, it's clear that I did. We make the time.
5. Here's where the parent-child learning gets important: There have been days when I've been so mad at my son that I didn't want to talk to him, much less sit and learn with him. But the Mishnayot keep coming, and there's no way to stop them. So we learn. And this forced communication, especially when we're struggling to communicate, is powerful and important.
6. You can accomplish a great deal just doing a little bit over time. It's only two mishnayot a day, and now we're almost done with three Sedarim, that we've learned together.
6a. Even when we're apart, we still find ways to learn together. We've done the Mishnah via Skype, phone, Google Hangout - the Mishnah has forced me to spend time with my son, even when I didn't "have" the time.
7. My son's reading and learning skills have grown tremendously over time.
8. Finally, the Mishnah often covers topics, like sexuality, fairness, and other issues, that gave me, as a parent, an opening to discuss topics that I may not have been comfortable breaching in another forum with my teenage son. Halachah doesn't mince words, and at some point when you learn a Mishnah you have to say, "Do you know what that means?" and if he doesn't, explain it. What better way to broach difficult and challenging topics than over the study of Torah.

So, to sum up, Just Do It! Even if you think you don't have the time, as soon as you're doing this for a month, you'll realize that you do. Don't know how to learn Mishnah that well? Buy an Artscroll, or Kehati, or listen online. You can even find a podcast from the OU. Seder Nezikin begins this Friday.
You will never regret joining the program. That's a guarantee.