Guatemalan Government Praises Chabad Rambam Translation

In what the local Jewish community is calling “unprecedented”, the Guatemalan Government’s Ambassador to Mexico sent a special letter of greeting upon hearing the news that the 7th sefer of Rambam had been translated into Spanish.

In what the local Jewish community is calling “unprecedented”, the Guatemalan Government’s Ambassador to Mexico sent a special letter of greeting upon hearing the news that the 7th sefer of Rambam had been translated into Spanish.

The letter was sent shortly after the book came from the printing press, with the first copy delivered to the Rebbe’s library, where it was received by Chief Librarian Rabbi Sholom Ber Levine. The new book, a Spanish translation of the Rambam’s Sefer Zeroim, follows the translation of many earlier works of Nigleh and Chassidus into Spanish by the Chabad publishing houses in South America.

“It is my great pleasure to greet you on this special occasion, the day in which you finished translating the seventh book of Maimonides, the Book of Seeds,” Ambassador Mario Adolfo Bucaro Flores wrote in his letter to Shneur Zalman Halperin, a bochur from Argentina who had previously met the ambassador.

He went on to note that he had previously served as the ambassador to Israel, during which the Guatemalan Embassy was transferred to Yerushalayim.

“The work that you do is incredible. Maimonides was born in Spain, he was Hispanic. Translating Maimonides’ books into Spanish (which he failed to do in his life) is something truly transcendental,” he wrote.

The ambassador praised the work the shluchim did for the Spanish speaking community around the world, with extra words of praise for the current translation.

“Maimonides was a unique person, and in many centuries there was no one like him. However, in the last century an extraordinary person arose, comparable to Maimonides, the Rebbe of Lubavitch,” he wrote.

Shluchim involved in the new book pointed out that the state of Guatemala, which has a population of about 17 million, has always been known as an amazing lover of Israel. The country was among the countries that voted for the establishment of the State of Israel at the UN in 1947. There are 27 streets in Guatemala called “Jerusalem the capital of Israel” and during the visit of the President of the State of Guatemala Mr. Jimmy Morales, the President said “G-d has chosen you, we are blessed by the very connection with you”.

“Despite all the above, the current declaration is historic, as there has been no such declaration by the Guatemalan Government in recent history,” they said.