Someone once observed that synagogues have a brotherhood Shabbos, an interfaith Shabbos, a Hadassah Shabbos, a graduation Shabbos, a youth Shabbos, etc., etc., and wondered, How about a Shabbos Shabbos? Shabbos, the height of spiritual insight and physical rejuvenation, needs no additive.
Something along this line struck us as we read about the Global Day of Jewish Learning. A day for Jewish learning? And you shall meditate upon them [the words of Torah] day and night. That is, every day and night. Read the related news coverage
And yet, we were encouraged to learn of the Global Day of Jewish Learning. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz plan to complete his translation of the 2,711 folio pages of the Talmud on that day transforms the day of Jewish learning into the lifelong task that it is.
Still, a single day just one day of global Jewish learning is a momentous advancement. It is symbolic. For decades, Jewish learning has been a low priority, if a priority at all. Lack of interest, poor pedagogy, love of secular learning coupled with embarrassment over Jewish learning, the assignment of Jewish learning to some backward, old world era, have been the name of the game. Now, a global day of Jewish learning and the attention it attracts is a beautiful symbol of the mental shift in the Jewish people. Read Rocky Mountain Jew’s related blog entry
To know is now seen as important. To study is now valued. To be seen with a Hebrew book under ones arm is respected, even envied. To check out a class in Daf Yomi (daily Talmud page), in Kabbalah, in Jewish medical ethics, in Biblical narrative is regarded as normal.
The revolution is just that a radical change from just a few decades ago.
One of the daily morning blessings is to bless G-d for the command to occupy oneself in the words of Torah. This is the next level, beyond a day of Jewish learning, beyond even a regular class. To be occupied with the words of Torah is to taste the tremendous spirituality and intellectual challenge of the Torah, to be transfixed by it. Fixed, not by drugs, not by frivolities, not by being a spectator of sports or entertainment, but by ones own thirst, by self-motivation, by the feeling that nothing else in the world can supply the high provided by a penetrating insight into or analysis of a word of Torah.
A Global Day of Jewish Learning represents a dramatic advancement in the collective consciousness of the Jewish people. We look forward to the Global Week, the Global Month, finally the Global Year of Jewish Learning.
Nothing unites the Jewish people like the study of Torah.
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