Talmud Business Hotel

There is a curious fascination in East Asia with the ancient texts of Jews, and now a chain of hotels in Taiwan has built a brand around the idea that a good night’s rest should come with a dose of the Talmud.

The Talmud Business Hotels purports to be inspired by the business lessons that can be gleaned from ancient rabbinic texts. Although the 63-volume, 6,200-page Babylonian Talmud itself touches only occasionally on business practices, the proprietors of the hotel believe that these teachings contain insights for how to achieve financial success in the modern age.

The inside of the hotel is a bright red (supposedly inspired by the Talmud), and each guest room reportedly comes with a copy of a book called the Talmud-Business Success Bible in the nightstand.

The 52 rooms are decorated in six different styles, each one named after a successful businessman (only two of whom are actually Jewish): Conrad Hilton, John D. Rockefeller, Alan Greenspan, George Soros, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. A stay at the Talmud Business Hotel should inspire the visitor to become more successful like those six men. And if you wake up feeling like you have not quite fully imbibed the business wisdom of the ancient rabbis, you can venture to a local bookstore to find more Talmudic financial teachings in popular Chinese books such as Know All of the Money-Making Stories of the Talmud and Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules. According to Newsweek, the author of the latter book says he’s never actually met a Jew.