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Why Study?October 2002From the Desk of Rabbi CohonTalmud Torah K'neged Kulam -- "The study of Torah is equal to all the other commandments."
In our society many measures of success are closely tied to educational accomplishment. There are direct correlations between successful schooling and how much money you make, what kind of neighborhood you live in, your physical health and even your life expectancy. Learning enhances life, in literal and figurative ways. This is not news to the Jews. In fact, education has been a central preoccupation of our people from the earliest of times, although traditionally we have a little different spin on it. The Shema is at least 2500 years old, and in it we are commanded to "teach these words diligently to your children" and to "speak of them at home and on the road, lying down and arising." The "words" being described in the Ve'Ahavta are the essence of what constitutes Torah: interactive education on the most important themes and ideas. What is good, what God wants from us, how we can live together in society, what we owe to others, and what we ought to expect of ourselves. There is a reason that the highest status in the Jewish world has always been accorded to the scholar of Torah. This kind of education--Torah--may or may not have much of an impact on our portfolios or our real estate holdings or even our aerobic fitness. But it has a profound influence on the quality of our lives. And yet we sometimes insist on Jewish education for our children while ignoring it for ourselves. Here at Temple Emanu-El we have been working hard to correct this tendency. We offer a plethora of outstanding Adult Education Academy courses with the finest instructors we can find here in Tucson. We have twenty five different courses this fall at virtually every level of knowledge, ranging from introductory courses like Taste of Judaism and Basic Judaism to Book and Film groups and Torah Study and the Tish, from Jewish Liturgy with Rabbi Richard Safran to Kabbalah with Pat Steinberg. Marjorie Hochberg can take you from no knowledge of Hebrew to an excellent reading knowledge in just a year, and Rabbi Freelund and I offer sophisticated electives in texts like the Song of Songs and the Guide to the Perplexed, in Intermediate Judaism and Conversational Hebrew. We can prepare you for Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah, and take you further through Adult Confirmation. This year, by request, we have added classes in Practical Judaism, teaching you how to do the Jewish holidays and home rituals which are so central to Jewish living. And we are now offering classes almost every day of the week, and during both daytime and evening hours. If you have not yet done so, I urge you to enroll in an least one Adult Education Academy course this fall. By many accounts, we have the finest adult education program in the country, the most comprehensive and the most innovative. Most importantly, we have discovered that people who get involved in Adult Education Academy at Temple become deeply involved in a variety of other ways: they give of themselves to help others in need, their experience of prayer and service is enormously enhanced, they connect to new friends in a meaningful and positive ways. We have even had a shidach or two come about in Adult Education Academy. In other words--it's really good for you. Won't you join us in making this a true year of Torah? L'shalom v'reiut, in peace and friendship, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon |
