You will provide most of this week's posting, so I'm counting on you to comment below!
This week we observed Simchat Torah, completing a cycle of reading Torah and continuing, as ever, with the first words of the Torah -- thus fulfilling the maxim of the improbably named Sage, Ben Bag Bag, who said of the Torah, "Turn it, and turn it again, for everything is in it" (Pirkei Avot 5:22).
Thus this Shabbat we will proceed to consider Parashat Bereshit, the first portion of the Book of Genesis.
In the spirit of new beginnings, my guided reflection this week is plain and simple: Share something that you are planning to BEGIN in the coming year of study.
I look forward to reading your responses.
Shabbat Shalom!
Jonathan
OK, I'll start. It's always hard to pick just one thing to study. There is so much interesting material out there, it is hard to just pick one.
ReplyDeleteYou already have us on a continual cycle of Torah study through our wonderful Shabbat morning gathering, replete with nourishing bageles. I love using the Berlin/Brettler/Fishbane commentary from the Jewish Study Bible together with Fox's translation...knowing that others bring Plaut, Etz Khayim, and more traditional rabbinic commentaries to the table.
In parallel with this, I just acquired Alter's translation and commentary of Psalms. I hope to start to work my way through the book this year.
In addition, I also hope to work on Hebrew language a bit this year--spoken Modern Hebrew as well as Biblical Hebrew. I haven't yet figured out how to do it. My spoken Hebrew has degenerated into relatively primitive clauses. But, when Don recently circulated Israel radio links, I discovered that my Hebrew comprehension is not that bad. So, if you see me hanging with Tzvi a lot, you'll know what I'm doing... :) Actually, I need to start Skyping with family and friends ba'Aretz.
Can you recommend an affordable Biblical Hebrew grammar book?
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI will read the Tanakh from page one until the end (English), and to struggle with the sections that I find to be so troubling. Like DavidS, I will also seek to learn to improve on my most rudimentary Hebrew.
Michael, I have found it personally very challenging to tackle the Tanach on one's own. I have tried to do so several times over the years. I'll start at Gen 1 and, if I am honest, am in deep sleep in Gen 5... an easier way, which has the added benefit of spontaneous insightful teachings by Rabbi Blake, is to study Torah together with our group of men and women, with a spectrum of experiences from rabbis to educators to health professionals to lawyers to bankers to those happily retired from the rat race, etc. I find that the different experiences we all bring to the table help us turn the text in new and interesting ways. We just started with Bereshit this week. Next week, we read Genesis chapter 11 (triennial third of Noakh 6:9-11:32). If your schedule permits, I welcome you to join us from 9-11am on Shabbat in our new library.
ReplyDeleteAs for Biblical Hebrew, I have learned from a respected source that Lambdin is an excellent book.
Thank you, David. I was thinking about trying to start coming. I've actually read through Genesis and Exodus, and Leviticus (incredibly difficult to read for a lot of reasons), and the beginnings of Numbers. Have also bounced around Isaiah, which is also not an easy read. All the best.
ReplyDeleteGod is the central reality of my life and belief in God grounds me as a Jew and as a human being.
ReplyDeleteI aspire to allow others to explore their own beliefs, and I hope to inspire others toward a meaningful belief in God that is consonant with Judaism and with their experience of the world. Part of the reason that Judaism has survived for thousands of years is that we have permitted a wide array of ways to "believe in God."
In the meantime, I might recommend that you spend less time denouncing the words of a person whom you have never met, to whom you have never spoken in person, and more time acting in such a way as to evince God's presence and God's own love of humanity.