The Voice of Gladness

The Editor’s Introduction

I have merited to make this book, which I named Kol sasson [The Voice of Gladness], for the reason that our masters of blessed memory said that it is obligatory for everyone to read the Torah according to the state of his knowledge: if he knows [how to read] Mishnah he should read Mishnah, and if he knows Gemara he should read Gemara, and if he knows Zohar he should read Zohar, and if he knows the parashah he should read the parashah, and if he knows Psalms he should read Psalms [see b. Sanhedrin 101a]. As the verse says, You should meditate on it day and night (Joshua 1:8); and now one should not say, “since I do not understand what I am reading, what is the benefit of reading it?” This is not the case! Everyone who reads what they know [how to read] for the sake of heaven, even if they do not understand what they are saying, is rewarded as one who did understand.

But because of our many sins, people today do not do this, but now they say, “I do not understand what I am reading, so I will not read.” And in order to expand their minds, they buy the books of Christian [Roman] stories, and the many people who buy the journals do so not to see the news in them but so that they can read the stories and feuilletons in them.

Therefore I have merited to make this book in Arabic, so that everyone can study the stories of the miracles and wonders that the Holy One has done for our ancestors in every generation; even if he only learns from it the lesson of fearing the Holy One, he will still have a good reward from studying them, as our masters of blessed memory said [in the Passover Haggadah] regarding the Exodus from Egypt: “anyone who expands on telling the story of the Exodus, this is praiseworthy indeed.” It is clear from these words that the Holy One takes pleasure in everyone who studies the miracles that He did, since through studying them, they will learn His power and fear Him . . . and he will have [the merit] of this mitzvah, as we have said.

Also, it is good in the winter days, when the nights are long, for a man to sit and study these stories with his family, so that all the women too will know the power of the Holy One. For this reason I called [this book] Kol sasson [The Voice of Gladness], since it will gladden people’s hearts; also, kol sasson yields the [same] numerical value as “Mordechai Seror, May God Protect Him.” And now I have finished part one, and I ask the Holy One that soon in the future I may have the fortune of finishing part two.

Written here in the city of Algiers, may God protect it, on the 25th of Heshvan, 5645 [November 13, 1884], by the humble servant of God, Mordechai Seror, may he merit a good end.