“And acquire a friend for yourself” (Avot 1:6) The commentary attributed to Rashi states that according to some, this means to acquire books.”
Rabbi Isaac Kanpanton, one of the last great rabbis and Roshei Yeshiva of Spanish Jewry, quotes this Rashi commentary in his treatise Darchei HaGemarah adding, “because the book is a good friend.” He writes in praise of books: “Ein Chochmat Ha’adam Maga’at Ela ad Makom Shesefarav Magi’im – Man’s wisdom extends only as far as his books reach.”
Judah ben Saul Ibn Tibbon, the “father of translators,” who translated Bahya Ibn Pakuda’s Chovot HaLevavot, Judah HaLevi’s Kuzari and other books from Arabic into Hebrew, provides the following advice in his will to his son Samuel, who became a great translator in his own right, translating, inter alia, Maimonides’ Guide: “My son, let your books be your friends.”
In Avot (2:8) we read: “Marbeh Torah, Marbeh Chayim (the more Torah, the more life); Marbeh Yeshiva, Marbeh Chochma (the more schooling, the more wisdom)…”
In the wake of these sayings, rabbis have coined the following; Marbeh Sefarim, Marbeh Chochmah (the more books, the more wisdom).
There is also a widespread humorous interpretation of of Yehoshua ben Perachya’s U’keneh Lecha Chaver (and acquire a friend for yourself): Don’t read U’keneh but Vekaneh. One of the meanings of the Hebrew word Kaneh is a reed. As long as people wrote with reeds, Hebrew writers often used the word Kaneh for pen. Thus the saying in Avot, after replacing U’keneh by Vekaneh would mean: the pen should be your companion. You should always have a pen on you to write down what you have learned or heard, as well as other things you have to remember and dare not forget.
This transformed saying of Avot is found in many rabbinic and other Hebrew books. We can mention here only some of these.
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Koidonoever writes in his well known Mussar book Kav HaYashar, which was printed for the first time in the early years of the 17th century: “U’keneh Lecha Chaver”– in addition to the obvious meaning of this saying, it might also hint at the pen. The pen should be your companion, enabling you to write down your novellae.”
Rabbi Yaakov Emden, in a chapter of his book Birat Migdal Oz (which is the third part of his Siddur) writes about the advantages writing has over speaking: “Speech serves man only when he is in company; but he can proceed with writing even when he is alone. Therefore the saying goes, “The pen should be your companion.”
In the introduction to his Mor U’ketzia (Altona 1761), Rabbi Yaakov Emden encourages himself: “Arise and be strong to do your work, take the inkwell and make the pen your companion.”
The 17th century Kabbalist Rabbi Meir Poppers also used the above saying in his work Or Tzaddikim (Hamburg, (1690).
The saying seems to have been first used in the 16th century, but it might be older.
Mekor Yisrael, a book about the life of 15th century Rabbi Israel Isserlein, the author of responsa Terumat HaDeshen and other books, was published in Munkacz in 1906. (I first learned of this book from Rabbi Yisrael Goldmann’s Knesset Yisrael on Pirkei Avot, printed in Rumania in the 1920s). Yisrael Isserl Tauber, the author of Mekor Israel, writes that he had heard that Rabbi Yisrael Isserlein used to sit in the Beth HaMidrash, his pen with him by day and by night, so that he could immediately record his Chiddushim. He applied to himself the saying: VeKaneh Lecha Chaver.
If this story is authentic, then Rabbi Isserlein must have been the first to use the above maxim. However there seems to be nothing in the writings of contemporaries of Rabbi Isserlein, or in the writings of those who lived not long after him, to corroborate this story.
On the other hand it is quite possible that Yisrael Isserl Tauber, who was a descendant of Rabbi Isserlein related a family tradition that was not generally known.
The Jewish Press, Friday, August 2002 p. 8