October Torah

Some people just like to get under our skin. We all know them. It might be that they’re craving attention, and it might be that they have a strange sense of humor. One of these people, a Roman, once approached the great Rabbi Shammai, and said to him, “Hey, I’ll become Jewish if you teach me the whole Torah in the time I can stand on one foot.” Quite the taunt, and Shammai takes the bait. Instead of responding wittily in turn, he gets mad, grabs the ancient equivalent of a yard stick, and chases this heathen out of his life.

Hillel, another great rabbi (who typically wins the debates with Shammai, sorry for the spoiler), treats this guy a little differently. He takes the man’s challenge and turns it right back on him. When he comes before Hillel, Hillel says, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That’s the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary. Now, go and learn.”

Guess what? The man is blown away by this and becomes a student of Judaism. (Talmud Shabbat 31a, with some paraphrasing).

I take two lessons from this story:

One. We still have a few days before Yom Kippur, and therefore a few days to continue working on ourselves in preparation for the year. We learn from Hillel a valuable technique for dealing with those who try our patience. There will, no doubt, be those who push us, deliberately or not. Shammai gets pushed, Shammai gets mad, Shammai reacts. Hillel, on the other hand, responds, but he responds constructively— he finds a way to channel this man’s prank-filled energy in a new direction. He takes that deep breath we all know so well, he considers what could be a useful response here, what could make this situation better for the long-term? And rather than acting on that initial moment of irritation, he summons patience, he takes long enough to tap into the wisdom that fills each one of our minds, and he brings the trouble-maker under the wings of Shekhinah. Imagine if we all reacted with patience and thoughtfulness whenever we were troubled by another. What a wonderful world it would be.
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Two. The Torah is filled with beautiful messages for our lives. While some verses may prove more obscure and confusing than others, they are all part of a beautiful whole. The Torah challenges us to lead moral, love and patience-filled lives, and gives us a whole lot of ways of accessing this love and patience. So, come and learn with us.

We have a great course offering this coming year, and I would like to highlight one:

Introduction to Judaism. In a reflective and supportive environment, we’ll learn together about Jewish history, traditions, holidays and life-cycle ceremonies. Are you wondering, is Intro to Judaism really for me? It is, if you fall into one of three types of people: (1) You’re not Jewish and interested in learning more about Judaism. Not necessarily for the purposes of converting, but for better learning the traditions of your partner, children, and/or friends. Or, because you’re curious. (2) You’re not Jewish and interested in converting. If you’re partner’s Jewish, it’s strongly recommended that your partner join you. (3) You’re Jewish, and want to learn about Judaism. We can all brush-up on our learning. There’s so much that Judaism can do for our lives, so think about joining us on this journey of discovery.

Published in Temple Emanu-El’s October 2014 Kolaynu.