WASHINGTON — Adam Schiff, the freshman Democratic senator from California, is being sworn into workplace on a 1490 version of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, some of the revered and distinguished codes of Jewish legislation.
Schiff, in a press release forward of his swearing in, mentioned the version, revealed within the duchy of Milan, now in northern Italy, was “a monumental authorized code and some of the organized, complete, and influential works of Jewish legislation.”
The version was revealed by Gershom ben Mosheh ish Sontsino, a scion of a pioneering Jewish printing household referred to as Soncino. A publishing home within the household’s identify remains to be energetic.
A spokeswoman for Schiff, till lately a U.S. Consultant and a former federal prosecutor, mentioned he selected the quantity, held by the Library of Congress, partially due to his issues in regards to the state of the rule of legislation as President-elect Donald Trump returns to workplace.
Schiff led one among Trump’s impeachments within the president’s first time period and co-chaired the congressional investigation into the lethal Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, which was spurred by Trump’s false claims he received that election. Trump, who has promised “retribution” in opposition to his perceived enemies, mentioned this week Schiff ought to be jailed.
The spokeswoman mentioned that Schiff was additionally interested in the quantity due to his mental curiosity. “It’s merely his nerdy curiosity in how previous this quantity is and the way complete it’s,” she mentioned.
Maimonides, also referred to as Rambam and regarded one among historical past’s preeminent Jewish students, wrote the Mishneh Torah within the twelfth century as an all-inclusive information to the system of Jewish legislation. Written in Hebrew and divided into 14 volumes, it’s a fixture of Jewish homes of research and different academic establishments.
Schiff is just not the one Jewish elected official who lately selected to be sworn into workplace on volumes that replicate why they acquired into politics. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, in 2023 was sworn in on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles, together with the one which was on the bimah when a gunman massacred 11 Jewish worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
For extra content material, go to jta.org.