A Press Named for a Promise
In Amsterdam in 1626 the young Rav Menashe opened the first Hebrew press in Holland, and gave it a name taken from Tehillim.
A story ofRav Menashe Ben Yisrael of Amsterdamהרב מנשה בן יוסף בן ישראלProfile ›
It is told that Rav Menashe ben Yisrael was a young man when money grew scarce at home, and he could no longer give all his time to learning. He looked for work that would still serve Torah, and he found it in the printing house.
In 1626 he set up a Hebrew press in Amsterdam, the first in all of Holland. For its sign he chose a verse from Tehillim (85:12), Emes MeEretz Titzmach, Truth will sprout from the earth. For a man whose parents had fled a land where Judaism was a crime, the words held a promise: what has been buried will rise.
From that press came prayer books and works of Torah and, in time, his own writings. Many of his title pages carried the same line. Some of his books appeared in Spanish and Portuguese, for former Marranos who were still learning how to be Jews, so that the truth would sprout among them too.
In the years that followed, Amsterdam grew into one of the great centers of Jewish printing, and its seforim travelled to communities far from Holland. It began with one young rav and one printing press.
Source: Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (Jewish Publication Society, 1934); Steven Nadler, Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (Yale University Press, 2018); the imprint Emeth Meerets Titsmah on his Amsterdam title pages.
Rav Menashe did not wait for ideal conditions; he began with a press and a verse. Is there a good thing you keep postponing until you have more time, more money or more skill? Choose one small step today and take it: write the first page, make the first phone call, set out the first sefer on your table. Then give it a name that reminds you why you started. Truth and goodness often sprout slowly, from the ground you already stand on, and a modest beginning is still a beginning.