“Louis Finkelstein, longtime chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, famously quipped, ‘Prayer is the way we talk to God; study is the way we hear God’s voice.’ This is the crucial importance of Torah study. Whether you believe the Torah was written by God or interpreted by human beings, the Jewish tradition views Torah, broadly defined, as God’s little instruction book for how to lead a life of meaning and purpose, belonging and blessing. Torah reveals God’s face. When we encounter God’s word, we come face-to-face with God.”
These are the words of Ron Wolfson, a leading student of trends in the Jewish world, in his recent book Relational Judaism. I think he is right, because I have seen it in action. When people get together to study Torah on a regular basis, they do much more than learn about Jewish tradition. They become Torah. They share their lives and find ways to bring new meanings to old texts. The sage with the wonderfully redundant name of Ben Bag Bag said of the Torah, “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it.” To me, what that means is that by studying Torah in a community, we can find things there that can change our lives.
It is particularly appropriate to study Torah on Shabbat, a time set aside for prayer and for study. As I said, it helps to do this on a regular basis, because the opportunity to find something important increases if study becomes a habit. For these reasons, we are going to make that an opportunity for this community.
Starting right after the holiday season ends, on Saturday, Sept. 28, I will lead a weekly Saturday morning Torah study at the Temple. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. and run until 9:30 a.m. It will take place every week that I am here, and this experiment will continue until the end of June, at which time we will assess how things went. When there is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, we will end at 9:15.
We will study the Torah in order, starting with the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. We will get as far each week as we get, and we will pick up where we left off the next week.
You don’t need to bring anything; we have Torah commentaries that you can use. You do not need to be a Torah scholar to participate. You need never have even read the Torah. We will study the text in English. You don’t have to commit to any set number of times to attend. Come once and see. You don’t need to come every week; show up when it works for you. I think that once you come, you’ll want to come back, but that is up to you to decide. Oh, and by the way, from time to time, there will be bagels.
Jewish tradition refers to the Torah as a morashah, an inheritance. It is the inheritance of the Jewish people, and it is also the inheritance of those who are not Jewish but have chosen to participate in the life of the Jewish people through this synagogue. Come to Torah study and claim your legacy.
May your New Year be a sweet one, may your repentance on the Day of Atonement be efficacious, and may your Sukkot celebration be filled with plenty.