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A MESSAGE FROM THE RABBI
Dear Reader:
We are called the “People of the Book” because we introduced the Torah to the world and have made it a consistent part of who we are as a people. In truth we should be called the “People of the Books” because we do not limit ourselves to the Torah. We study the Prophets, and the Writings, and the Megillot, and the Haggadah, and the Talmud, and commentaries on each of these, and commentaries on the commentaries, and our liturgy, and Jewish poetry, and Jewish prose, and Jewish cookbooks.
But the Jewish way to read or study, is not simply to read or study. We read and re-read, and discuss, and digest. The Rabbinic way to do this is by a method called “Chevrutah”, which is best translated as “friendship” or “fellowship”. We don’t study alone; we study with a partner or in a group. When we study in this way, each partner has input into the interpretation or understanding of what is being read.
When I first came to the JCC, some 13 years ago, in the winter we did not have enough people on Saturday mornings for a minyan. Since I was at the JCC for the entire Shabbat, from sunset on Friday through an hour after sunset on Saturday, I decided to study Torah on Saturday morning. I invited the community to join me.
I did not know what would happen. Would it just be me and the Torah, or would someone choose to wake up on a Saturday morning and join a Rabbi in the Library?
The first week 2 people showed up. After a few weeks we were 4 people. A little while longer, and we became 7 people. Soon Father John Frambes, Z”L, from St. Francis, joined us. He eventually brought in a few of his congregants. Then Reverend Roy Minnix joined us.
Ultimately, we became a community of 15-20 people studying Torah from 10 until noon on Saturday mornings. If, on a given Shabbat, everyone showed up, we moved from the library to the social hall. People who had never looked at the Torah, or who had previously thought it was an irrelevant book of stories about old Jews, were now learning that it told the story of our people, past, present, and future. We learned that it is a book of laws, a book of poetry, a book of wisdom, a love story, and a book about how to live a better life. We learned that it is not just a book, but an encapsulated universe capable of creating new universes.
We learned the joy of studying in Chevrutah. We learned the joy of listening to different interpretations. We learned the joy of understanding a well-known passage in a way we had not previously considered. We learned the joy of the taste of coffee and Torah on our lips on a Shabbat morning. (I, and my waist, learned the joy of eating way too many Entenmann’s PoP’ems, always supplied by Dr. Lee Gardner).
After a while, we realized that we had enough people for a minyan. We shifted our Chevrutah to a Shabbat Minyan. It is important that we have our Shabbat minyan, but I do so miss those Saturdays of discussing one line of Torah for two hours.
I shifted Torah study to Thursday mornings at 11:00, on Zoom. Some of our original Chevrutot are still joining us, but we have a number of new Chevrutahs.(Didn’t we used to sing: “Make new friends but keep the old.”?) Please join us. It is one thing to study, but it is quite another thing to study with friends. Here is the link: https://zoom.us/meeting/88250553113?occurrence=1776956400000
Right now, since Passover is behind us and we are counting the days until the receipt of Torah on Shavuot, it is customary to study a portion of the Mishnah known as: “Pirkei Avot”, “Wisdom of our Ancestors”. It contains ancient wisdom of the rabbinic sages, emphasizing the relationship between Torah, wisdom, and ethical conduct.
Learning Torah as an adult opens our eyes to a whole new window of what our tradition is all about. Study, discuss, make friends and maybe even have a Pop-Em. You will not only be learning, but I also guarantee you will be teaching too.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov– Rabbi Michael S. Jay
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