Learning as Worship

The concept of learning as worship may not be self-evident, but it’s opened up when we start by looking at worship itself.

The small group has journeyed toward the mountain—an old man, his thirty-something son, and two servants. It’s the third day of their journey and the old man hasn’t told the others what is on his mind, the horrific deed God had commanded him to carry out. Finally, the old man sees their destination on a far-off mountain. He stops and tells the servants to stay put while he and his son go and worship there. After that, they would return (Gen. 22:5)

I used to think that “we will worship” was an odd way for the old man to describe tying up his son and plunging his knife into him. The promise to return was also a mystery. I read somewhere that the old man believed that his son would be raised from the dead. By why call it worship? I didn’t get it until I dug deeper. Abraham knew what he was talking about. Slaying his son, his son’s willing sacrifice, was going to be their joint worship of God, the Holy One of Israel.

     The Scriptures use words like singing, thanking, dancing, playing instruments, twirling, leaping, etc. as ways of expressing ourselves verbally and bodily toward God. There are other words, like bowing down and kneeling, that seem to touch on something deeper, something involving more of the whole person. But there’s one word that stands alone as the deepest expression of human awe and adoration of God.

     In Hebrew, that word is hishtakh’vei (הִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה). It means prostrating oneself before someone. Various forms of this word are used in Genesis 22:5 and over 170 times in the Tanakh, but you don’t often see it translated as “prostrated himself” because it’s usually translated simply as “worship.” In the Brit Hadashah (New Testament), a similar Greek word is proskuneo, which refers to bowing down and is usually translated as “worship.”

    Sometimes this worship doesn’t involve an outward prostration, one that can be seen by others, but it always involves an inner prostration, one that can be seen by God. This inward-outward prostration before God the Holy One is the deepest, most profound act of which human beings are capable. It is the essence of worship.

    Three doors that open wide to worship are prayer, verbal expression of adoration, and Torah learning. Torah study becomes Torah learning as we inwardly prostrate ourselves before the Holy One while we explore the words of Torah with others and on our own. Learning as worship flows from a spiritual engagement with the writings, an engagement that expresses a radical dependence on God. It involves a process of inner transformation that can take place no other way.

    Let me be quick to say that Torah learning is not somber and it certainly isn’t dull. It includes—in my view it must include— the joy of discovery, the joy of God’s presence, and the joy of learning with others. The blend or balance of awe, adoration, and joy will vary according to the Torah writings being learned and the personality and circumstances of the learner(s).  Our experience of the Holy One isn’t uniform or monotonous.

    One of our sages, Rabbi Hama ben ‘Ukba said: “Just as water makes plants grow, so the words of Torah make everyone mature who labors over them as they require” (Song of Songs Rabbah 1.9). Labor (elsewhere it’s called “much labor”) is the work that is necessary to learn words of Torah. Elsewhere, Rabbi Hama said the same thing, but used the word “engages” instead of “labors” (Song of Songs Rabbah 5.16). Engagement signifies the inner connections that are required to learn words of Torah, and engagement that must involve worship.

     Torah learning is very ancient. It’s been around since the first oral and written accounts of the interactions between God and human beings. Our sages understood that Torah learning is worship, but it's a new thought for Messianic Jews, who are beginning to discover that spiritual learning is not the gathering of facts and concepts—though that’s an essential part of it—but much labor and a worshipful engagement with the writings of our sages.