Text Study Sessions

In a monumental mythic moment, our ancestors received Torah, at the foot of the Mount.  How does the Sinai story resonate with, and challenge, us moderns?  Why did our forebears say of the Torah enterprise, "we will do, and we will hear/hearken" – na’aseh v’nishmah -- in that order?  We could (did!) spend an entire weekend retreat unpacking this one rich verse, Exodus 24:7.  Here’s we'll grapple with Torah's putative pedigree; its practical pedagogy; its proposed program; and its precise purpose.

​How did a story of human depravation, mass destruction, and family dysfunction become the stuff of children’s songs and nursery art?!  A de-sanitized look at Genesis 6 through 9 raises big questions – about human nature and civilization; our relationship with the rest of life on Earth; God; and who wrote the Torah.

 We think we know the story that kicks it all off – but a close reading holds numerous surprises.  Both in the story and in our world today, you’ll think anew about relationships between the genders, among all species, and with our Creator.

So much is conveyed in a series of verses from Exodus 23, Leviticus 25-26, Deuteronomy 15 and 31.  A literal biblical “sabbatical year” may never have been, and sure can’t happen today.   But if we treat shmita (the “radical release” that is year seven) as an ideal, an aspiration, an asymptote – we might just save our sanity, our souls, our society, and our spirit.  The next one isn’t until 5789 (2028-29), but living shmita-ly can start today by opening up Torah, studying these verses, and brainstorming how to actualize their values.

 In Bava Metzia 59b we find out what it means to have been given Torah.  Even clear signs from the One Above won’t change the human reading of Scripture.  We’ll savor this dramatic and consequential tale -- from the early yeshiva at Yavneh, at the dawn of rabbinic Judaism – in which all bets are off…

So much of our liturgy uses naturalistic images to convey its spiritual power.  It’s hard to pray indoors, given how the Psalmist and the framers of our prayer book locate divinity in the world around us!  And then there’s the second paragraph of the Sh’ma…  Iyun Tefillah, studying the language of traditional prayers, can open personal doors to prayer, while yielding powerful insights on our place in the cosmos.