Shabbat Gathering: Turning through Torah again.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

Last Shabbat we started reading Torah from the beginning again. We watch the parade of familiar characters with Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel leading the procession. This Shabbat, the parade will be joined by the animals, marching two-by-two on their way to Noah’s Ark. It’s all so familiar.

And yet, every year, we read the whole Torah. All over again. And again. And again. Why do we do it? How do we sustain interest in stories some of us have heard for five or six or more decades? What holds our interest?

This is why we do it: The story stays the same, but we change from year to year. I looked it up: Every five to seven years, every cell in our bodies have been completely replaced. And every year, our attitudes, predispositions, prejudices, perspectives change. Maybe not in a 180 degree way, but just enough so that we find something new in those familiar stories.

And if we’re doing Torah Study right, we’re doing it with a partner or in a group. People will join the group. People will drop out of the group. The dynamics and perspectives constantly shift around. And it is rare that everyone in the group is reading from the same Chumash. Different texts have different notes and commentaries. Studying Torah like this is like looking through a kaleidoscope: Give it just a little nudge and suddenly you see a totally new image. And it’s all beautiful.

The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, posed a thought experiment called Eternal Recurrence. What if we were to spend our lives reliving our past over and over again? Would that be hell? Would it be heaven? Nietzsche didn’t draw any conclusions, but I can put my own Torah Study into the model and let you know I’m in heaven.

Torah students return to their 54 weekly parshiot every year, and every year we find something different that amazes us, inspires us, and heals us.
Drop by. We serve cake and coffee too.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!

All my love,
brian.

PS

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