Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Where Does the Kefirah Go?

I have a very large book collection, recently got married and moved, and am in the process of organizing a couple of bookshelves in my living room and some others in my bedroom. Like most Jews, I plan on keeping a good amount of seforim in my living room, but now I have to figure out what to do with my books on biblical criticism, non-Orthodox Jewish movements, atheism (recall that for the record I am not an atheist), "radical" Jewish thought etc.

Do I put the kefirah-lite books out front and keep the rest in the back? (i.e. Marc Shapiro and Abraham Joshua Heschel go out front and Davies, Lemche, Finkelstein, etc. go in the back.) Should I keep all of the heresy in the back? All out front?

On the one hand I want intelligent guests to have a hint as to where I stand (arrogantly assuming that unintelligent guests won't care about my bookshelf), while on the other hand I want to remain a part of the community and not have people question my hashkafic (and food!) kashrut.

So that's today's big question: Where does the kefirah go?

("In the garbage!" is not an answer.)