This well-known saying of Ben Bag Bag says a lot about Torah on the one hand and the practice of learning on the other.
Ben Bag Bag says: Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it. Look deeply into it, and grow old with it, and spend time over it, and do not stir from it, because there is no greater portion. (Pirkei Avot 5:22)
The statements that "everything is in it" and "there is no greater portion" relate to the Torah. Torah is established at Sinai, confirmed in Yeshua, and worked out in tradition. Everything is in it. Especially understood in its Brit Hadashah renewal.
The rest of Ben Bag Bag's saying is about close reading as a lifelong practice:
1. Turn it over
2. Turn it over again
3. Look deeply into it
4. Grow old with it
5. Spend (lots of) time with it
6. Do not stir from it
There's no room here for superficial or episodic study. Ben Bag Bag urges us to be all in for a lifetime. He envisions a loving, repetitious, lifelong engagement with the words of Torah which are deep enough, rich enough, to reward a life study. Old age may be a time of physical decline, but it also offers the potential to be an especially rewarding time, culminating a life of study.
Your repetition of this lesson is welcome reading. So much resonance in the close reading. I might never have learned how!
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