Dear Friends
Now that the Jewish holiday season marathon has concluded, we are now faced with the impending return to normal-sized work weeks, normal-sized school weeks, and normal-sized food portions.
I don’t know about you, but I must admit that as much as I am a little sad that some holiday visitors have departed and I miss getting dressed up, hosting guests, and eating honey laced delicacies, I am a little holidayed out and am looking forward to getting back into a daily routine and schedule.
The approaching new month of Cheshvan is the only Jewish month with no unusual dates or holidays. While Jewish life certainly emphasizes a few important dates in the calendar to celebrate important events or observe certain rituals, in general the deep meaning that can be found in the daily rhythm of Jewish living is also a key part of a rich and meaningful spiritual life.
So now what can we focus on to continue growing and moving forward? I believe the restarting of the reading of the Torah in Jewish communities worldwide from the beginning is a blueprint for us to reengage in study on a regular basis.
As part of my ongoing acculturation to Charleston, over the holidays, I completed the autobiography of Pastor Porter, the founder of a well known local school. I found it interesting that as a teenager he started a daily routine of Bible study beginning with Genesis that he kept up for most of his life. He attributed much of his later success in life to this daily program of study.
I personally just concluded a section of the worldwide program of Talmud study called daf yomi and today began a new section by calling in to listen to a virtual Talmud class I like to attend in the early morning.
Whether we study a Jewish text after tefilah, a page of Talmud daily, or read a page of a spiritually uplifting book before bed, a daily regimen of spiritual study is one of the best things to help root us as we navigate the ups and downs of daily living.
Please let me leave you with one of my all-time favorite quotes by one of my all-time favorite characters, Merlin the Magician, in T.H. White’s classic “The Once and Future King”, “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Elisha Paul
Learner in Chief
Addlestone Hebrew Academy
