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.

Today’s Torah comes to you from a Kate Spade sample sale, circa 2001. Intent on a certain bag, I saw someone else eyeing it too. We both strode purposefully towards it, and it is possible that there was … an argument. These years later, I could not at all tell you who ended up with the bag, nor do I much care, but I was thinking about that incident recently, and not only because I am excited about today’s WPA Holiday Boutique!

I was thinking about the ways in which our common interests can bring us together, but also sometimes challenge us. I see it in the social dynamics my third grader encounters, and I see it in the Jewish community as a whole. I might go so far as to say that this plays out in our national conversations, as well.

Once again, the rabbis of the Talmud have something to offer us, this time from Tractate Kiddushin. Folded into a larger discussion of the commandment from the V’ahavata that we should “teach [God’s commandments] to our children,” Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba makes this fascinating comment. He teaches:

Even a father and his son, or a rabbi and his student, who are engaged in Torah together in one gate become enemies with each other due to the intensity of their studies. But they do not leave there until they love each other,

The gate here is likely metaphoric, but I imagine it means the close quarters of being someone’s partner—whether in marriage, business, or study. Now, I would argue that Torah study is, or is meant to be, antithetical to anger and division. The medieval commentator Rashi explains that it is not that these partners are enemies; rather, in the great rabbinic tradition, they become intellectual sparring partners, passionate about their ideas and their interpretations.

But, of course, the real lesson comes at the end: They do not leave until they love each other, until they remember their fundamental bond and relationship. We are meant to exist in those tight spaces with an ongoing consciousness of what brings us together—whether a love of Kate Spade or Torah.

—Rabbi Sari Laufer