This photo was taken on a ferry in NY, on my way to the Statue of Liberty. If you look at the picture, you can almost feel the peace of mind and serenity of this old Jew immersed in his reading. In fa

This photo was taken on a ferry in NY, on my way to the Statue of

Liberty. If you look at the picture, you can almost feel the peace of

mind and serenity of this old Jew immersed in his reading. In fact,

there were dozens of (very noisy) people moving around him. It's

really true what they say about photography: it isolates reality

better than anything else...

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in Jewish culture the study of holy books ("seforim") is referred to as "learning" (in Yiddish, "lernen"). It is different from "reading" in that one does it "lishmah" (for the sake of fulfilling the commandment to "...meditate on these words morning and evening...").

It's a great photo which captures well the life of an observant Jew.