Welcome to Sunday School, the Sunday edition of Turn It, Turn It.
This morning, as we are adjusting to the Gregorian New Year, we thought it would be fun to reshare this piece about how to approach Torah if you are new to it. Who knows, maybe you’ll start up with a chevruta this year!
As always, thank you for reading!
New To Torah? Thoughts For New Students
When I study Torah with anyone who is not familiar with “The Book,” I find there are some very basic premises that we may not share. For example, someone who is new to Torah may flinch at the many times G-d kills thousands of people through a plague, or the laws about what people can and cannot wear. Here’s the thing, yes. It’s in there. The world of the Torah is ancient, messy, and can be understood in many different ways.
The following are what I frequently end up talking to my students about when we study Torah. So, I figured I’d write them all down together, to pre-empt Torah study from now on. Enjoy!
Yes, It’s Old.
Ancient, actually. And it hasn’t been updated – that’s the entire point. Instead, it is commented upon – reinterpreted in each generation. You have to stomach the fact that humanity didn’t always look like the 21st century. You have to forgive, in some ways, that the text measures how far we have come – that it has friction and points to a time we can no longer understand. You have to accept that someday, our future relatives will look back on our time and think us primitive fools, too.
No, You’re Not The First To Cringe
Since the text was first read aloud by Ezra, we can assume people had thoughts about it. We may even consider that some of the laws no longer applied to life in Judea. This text has been poured over, memorized, studied late into the night, day after day, for lifetimes. So, though your voice and particular orientation towards it is unique, don’t assume you are the first to realize some of toughest parts of the Torah. It’s all in there. We know.
Oral Torah Happened, Too
Soon after the Torah came the Mishna and then the Mishna and the Gemara and all the other commentaries on the Misha, which equals the Talmud. This is also known as the Oral Torah, which is the rabbis’ way of making sense of Torah and telling you the wisdom of the time. In it we learn things like when to say the shema or how to light the chanukiah. After Talmud came more law codes and works of philosophy and liturgy. And of course, there is also the midrashim (very creative interpretations, like Torah “fan fiction”). In other words, remember that the Hebrew Bible is the beginning in a long chain of text and analysis and practical law. It is the foundation, but not the whole picture when we are talking about Jewish life today.
Don’t Decide The Writers Or Characters Were Stupid
This is my biggest pet peeve – when we infantilize those who recorded the Torah (or even the people the Torah talks about). Now, obviously if you believe these words were directly handed down by the Eternal Divine, Herself, you likely won’t assume this. But when folks approach Torah already determined to feel smarter than it or to feel morally and intellectually superior to all characters the Torah records, why bother? Also, this is a good practice for all parts of your life. In essence, it’s a practice of curiosity and humility.
It Is Not In The Heavens!
Don’t let the text bully you. It is a text. We learn in the Talmud through the story of the oven of akhnai that “the Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, we do not regard a Divine Voice, as You already wrote at Mount Sinai, in the Torah: ‘After a majority to incline (Exodus 23:2)’ (Bava Metzia 59b).” The text is now in the hands of people. It is sacred and on the ground. It belongs to communities who are charged with applying it to their lives. It is a conversation to be had. Approach the text with courage. Do not cower to the text, wrestle with it – dare to engage.
Translation Is Interpretation
If you are reading in any language other than Hebrew, you are reading someone else’s interpretation of the text. This is fine! Translation is a beautiful thing! And, if you are serious about understanding the exact meaning of the text (if there is such a thing…) comparing translations can be a great place to start. How does an Orthodox translation differ from the New Revised Standard Version to the King James Bible? This is a whole other level one needs to consider when making meaning from the text.
What Are Your Intentions?
Have at the very least a vague understanding of why you are reading the text and what the purpose of your interpretation is. Are you reading it to understand eternal human questions? Are you reading it to take part in an infinite Jewish universe of words? Are you studying to experience the divine? Study yourself first, before you jump in. And be open to what it opens up in you.
D’var Torah: Tov
In this series we look at Torah, one word at a time. D’var Torah means “word of Torah” and is what we call teachings or interpretations of a text. Here, we will take this phrase literally. Each word has a story.
Tov (טוֹב) means “good,” as in booker tov (good morning) or shavuah tov (have a good week). The BDB also gives us “pleasant and agreeable.” It’s a pretty straightforward word that occurs many, many times (562 times in the Hebrew Bible to be exact) and a whopping seven times in the first chapter of Genesis alone. Why? Because that is the beginning of creation. And what do we know about creation? It was good.
But not everyday of creation received the declaration, ki tov, “it was good.” The first day (Sunday), yep, good. Monday… no mention of it being good. Tuesday, it is good twice! There are two mentions of ki tov, “that it was good.” Why?
Rashi says it is because the work G-d began on the second day of creation (Monday, if you will) had not been completed yet. But on the third day (Tuesday), G-d completed two things, and so it was good, twice. For Rashi, it cannot be good if it is not completed yet.
Let us consider that “good” might mean some version of complete – that maybe completing something, in and of itself, is good. Completing things moves us forward in our lives. When we complete something, we take a pause, don’t we? We examine what we did. We don’t move for just a split second but point to something we did and for better or worse we say, I did that. I made that soup. I painted that picture. I folded that pile of laundry. I took that walk. And even if it turned out bad, in some way maybe, it was good because it’s done.
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