Think & Reflect:
We just completed the many holidays that start our Jewish year. For many, it is a relief and for many, it has started a new year of Jewish learning commitment. My favorite holiday is Simchat Torah – what could be better than celebrating the Torah and all that it encompasses. In an October 2004 article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, he asks us to imagine the members of the House of Lords, singing and dancing with a book of law. Bringing that picture to the United States, can you imagine our senators and congress members dancing and singing with the Constitution? Yet that is what we do on Simchat Torah!
As we read the stories in the Torah, we may forget that it is truly a book of law telling us how we should live our lives. Rabbi Sacks says, “…without law, there is no freedom, justice or human rights…That is why Jews saw law as the most precious gift of G-d, and why we still try to spend as much time as possible studying it.” AND WE DANCE WITH OUR BOOK OF LAW!
Questions to Ponder
Start with the general ideas: why do we need laws? How are we free if we must follow laws? Who is the authority behind the law? What happens if you don’t follow the law? Now to Jewish law – yes, we can ask the same questions! Those are the big questions but first question has to be WHAT are the laws?? A mitzvah has often be called a “good deed” but it is actually a “commandment” which come from the Torah. This makes for many more questions upon questions!! Keep asking!
Do & Share and A Challenge for a Week (or Longer)
Here is the “Do & Share” Plus “A Challenge for the Week”: we have 613 commandments in the Torah. Here is a list: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/756399/jewish/The-613-Commandments-Mitzvot.htm (and there are examples that you can google but they are the same) Your challenge is not to memorize the list, but try browsing through and find one that interests you. Go to the text in the Torah where it comes from. Now, do we have to do them all? No, but that is a Shabbat JEM for another time.
Laura Seymour | Camp Director Emeritus | Jewish Experiential Learning Director
Lseymour@jccdallas.org
