THE JEWISETNEWS
OCTOBER 13, 1989
A Toast
To Jewish Living
Torah: A Description Of All Jewish Learning
By RABBI ROBERT DOBRUSIN
Rabbi Robert Dobrusin is rabbi
of Temple Beth Israel in Ann Arbor
and the author of this month's To
Our Readers.' For each issue of
L'Chayim, a rabbi, Jewish educator
or other notable will present an
overview of the month's theme.
Think for a minute about all the
words that you have learned in
Hebrew School. Which of those
words do you think is the most
important?
There are, of course, many
possible answers to that question.
But, I believe that one word stands
out above all of the others. It is one
of the first words that you learned
and yet, you could spend your
entire life trying to understand it
completely. The word is TORAH.
Torah? It doesn't seem so
difficult to understand. After all, the
Torah is the five books of Moses.
Yes, that is true, but Torah means
much, much more.
At the end of Sukkot, Jews
throughout the world will gather
together in synagogues to do
something unique. We will gather to
sing and dance with the Torah on
Simchat Torah. I hope you plan to
be there. But, we should all take
some time before Simchat Torah to
think about what Torah is and why
we should celebrate in this way.
In Pirke Avot, Ethics of the
Fathers, there is a famous saying of
Shimon Hatzaddik. He said that the
world stands on three things: on
Torah, Avodah and Gemilut
Hasadim. Avoda is worship of God;
Gemilut Hasadim is tzedakah, acts
of kindness. Each of these is
important. But, Torah is the first of
the three.
Every religion teaches people to
worship God. Most religions
consider it important for people to
act kindly to others. But, no religion
has a concept quite like Torah.
So, what is it? First, Torah does
not just refer to the Five Books of
Moses. We use Torah to describe all
of Jewish learning: every book,
every story, every legend, every
lessoh that our ancestors taught for
us to learn.
Torah is one of the few aspects
of Judaism which is common to
Jews in every community in the
world. I was once in a synagogue in
Athens, Greece. I don't speak
Greek. I didn't recognize the tunes
to the prayers. The food at the
kiddush was Greek food — not the
gefilte fish and cake that I'm used
to eating after services. Everything
seemed different ... except for one
thing.
When the time came to read
the Torah, it was the same portion
they were reading back home. And,
when the rabbi began to teach
about the Torah portion to the
Hebrew school kids, I really think I
understood him — even though he
was speaking in Greek. I felt a part
of that learning.
Torah brings Jews together
when so many other things make us
different from one another. I once
spoke with a refusenik in his
apartment in Leningrad, in the
Soviet Union. He didn't speak
English. We didn't speak Russian.
So, we spoke Hebrew — what a joy
to find a way to communicate.
But, even in Hebrew, we really
weren't finding anything to talk
about, we had so little in common.
Then, he mentioned that he was
leading a seder the next night in his
apartment. He took out the
Haggadah and we studied a bit
together, asking each other
questions, teaching some customs
and melodies, learninig some new
thoughts on the seder. Torah study,
the study of a Jewish text, had
brought us together.
The study of Torah also brings
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