Starting this Wednesday, I have the honor of continuing in Rabbi Yoshi’s footsteps and leading our weekly Talmud Study. I’d love for you all to join me!
In case you can’t, or don’t, I’ll be sharing some favorite Talmud texts on learning—maybe they’ll inspire you to jump in, with me or any of our other wonderful learning opportunities.
Many of us are familiar with the concept of a minyan—the 10 people required in order to publicly offer certain prayers. Known as the dvarim she’b’kedusha—words of (or in) holiness—these prayers are largely those that feature some sort of call and response, where the leader needs the community to say “Amen,” or offer some other words of affirmation. Jewish tradition allows for—and sometimes encourages—us to pray alone, but in those cases, these particular prayers are not said, because they require community.
In many ways, the same is true of Jewish learning. While I would often see devout Christians reading the Bible on the subway in New York, focusing on their daily devotional, it is not something we often see Jews doing. Our study—like our prayer—is meant to be communal. We are learners and interpreters, not simply readers of the text. Our encounters with our sacred texts are meant to be dialogic; we are in conversation with the text and—perhaps more importantly—with the people with whom we are studying.
Over the next three days, we’ll look together at why our tradition praises this sort of communal learning. But, as the new work and school week begins, let’s begin by asking ourselves: What did I learn from, or with, someone else this past weekend?
—Rabbi Sari Laufer