Answer:
According to Jewish tradition, God is, among other things, a writer.
The Talmud says that, on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, God inscribes our names in one of three books: The Book of Life for the righteous, the Book of Death for the devilish and a to-be-determined list for the muddy middle.
Likewise, Pirkei Avot, a collection of rabbinic wisdom, instructs that Jews should keep in mind "all your deeds are inscribed in a book," a work that, if it exists, surely stretches across several heavens.
No surprise, then, that Jewish tradition holds texts in such high regard. As poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch writes in his new book, "The People and the Books," texts often became turning points in Jewish history. For a religion that lived in diaspora for more than 1,800 years, books took the place of temples and monuments, governments and great battle sites.
At times like Passover, which began Monday night, books are a bridge between Jewish present and past, linking modern Jews with the Israelites who escaped Egypt. At other times, books provided inspiration for the future, as in Theodor Herzl's "The Jewish State," a political pamphlet that prophesied the creation of the state of Israel.
Kirsch's title is a play on the Quran's name for Christians and Jews, "people of the book," but as he deftly demonstrates, even Orthodox Judaism relies on multiple texts. The 18 books Kirsch explores were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Yiddish and German over a span of 2,500 years. They include fables and fiction, history and heresy, philosophy and aphorisms.
CNN spoke to Kirsch about his book on Monday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
