Future Posts on Learning and Teaching

For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to post future thoughts about learning and teaching on my Midrash, etc. blog. They fit nicely in the "etc." category. Here's one on The Shortest Way as the best way.

Midrash and Torah Technology

These photos show a fragment from the Dead Sea scrolls photographed with two very different processes. The photo on the left was taken with standard equipment. Many words and letters were obscured (and even thought to be lost) to the effects of age.

The photo on the right was taken with a process called multispectral imagining technology developed by NASA. It uses ultraviolet and infrared light to increase image resolution. Previously obscured or apparently invisible text appears. Now, every letter of every word on the fragment could be understood.  

My point is this: It is possible for a new technology to reveal what was always there, but obscured. 

Turn It Over

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.

A Passion Worth Cultivating

I just posted on "A Passion Worth Cultivating" at Midrash, etc. It's a passion to work for the benefit of others.

4 Repetitions

A reader who prefers to remain anonymous on this blog reminded me of the following passage from Bavli Eruvin 54b. Here's the whole passage, taken from Jacob Neusner's translation:

Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority: What is the order of Mishnah teaching? Moses learned it from the mouth of the All-Powerful. Aaron came in, and Moses repeated his chapter to him and Aaron went forth and sat at the left hand of Moses.

 His sons came in and Moses repeated their chapter to them, and his sons went forth. Eleazar sat at the right of Moses, and Itamar at the left of Aaron. R. Judah says, “At all times Aaron was at the right hand of Moses.”

Learning with a Rabbi

My first hevruta (study partner) tried out four different yeshivot before finding the right one. In each case, the learning approach of the rosh yeshiva was the determinative factor. The learning approach that most suited my hevruta was a very deliberative and careful working through the gemara, not moving on until the material had been thoroughly grasped.

It was no accident that he and I learned together the same way. We didn't cover a lot of ground, but the ground we covered was really covered.

I wonder what would have happened to my hevruta if he had never found that rosh yeshiva? More relevant for us now, what about Messianic Jews who wish to learn seriously in a traditional setting or privately from a rabbi? How do MJs find a rabbi whose approach to learning is compatible with theirs?

Four Generations - Part 2

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Messiah Yeshua. And the things you have heard me say among many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:1-2).

I previously blogged about the trans-generational aspect of this verse. Now I want to look at it from another angle, one that’s equally important in passing it on through “four generations.”  

The translation I’m using here is a bit different from the one I used last time. In that post I used a translation of a certain phrase that isn’t exactly right. The idea that Shaul taught Timothy “in the presence of many witnesses,” which I used last time, sounds as if a bunch of people were standing by and watching the scene.  Now, does this make sense?

A New MJ Blog

Check out a new MJ blog, "The Jewish Carpenter: An exploration of the weekly parasha from a Messianic perspective. We delve into ancient and modern Jewish sources to bring out hidden meanings within the text and how to apply them to our life." Check it out at  http://thejewishcarpenter613.blogspot.com/.

Four Generations

My first mentor used to say, "If what we learn isn't passed along to others, we're like the Dead Sea—rich in minerals, but can't support life." (This was long before I read Avot 1.1.) So I suppose it was no accident that when I first read 2 Timothy, these words jumped off the page:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Messiah Yeshua. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:1-2).

Shaul envisions four generations passing on the apostolic mesoret (tradition): (1) Shaul, (2) Timothy, (3) those whom Timothy will teach, and (4) those who would be taught by Timothy's students.

New Learning Circles

Jweekly.com has article about Keva, a new non-profit in the San Franciso area. The article touches on three distinct trends: disaffection with current institutions, yearning for community, and a focus on Jewish texts. These trends are thoroughly relevant to Messianic Judaism. Here’s an excerpt:

A number of studies indicate that unaffiliated 20- and 30-something Jews . . . are turned off by conventional Jewish institutions and want to create their own Jewish vision of community.

Halakhic Learning/Living

Ben Ehrenfeld at the Living Torah blog, posts about the need for halakhic learning in our movement:

I have to confess that, by and large, the Messianic Jewish community is lacking in its pursuit of halakhic thinking/living (I am including myself in this critique...I have a long way to go). Even among those Jewish Yeshua followers that engage Jewish life in the context of our people's developed tradition, it normally stops shy of transforming our largely non-halakhic culture. So, I suggest we begin where this way of thinking began, where our sages began: Learning. We need to develop learning cultures that transform the way we think and live. there is much more to do than this, but I want to do my part in promoting this.

Read more here. and start your learning here.

"The future of Jewish life . . .

". . . is dependent upon Jews - not just rabbis - taking hold of the rich, challenging, surprising, and inspiring heritage that makes up our texts and traditions," Yes! Read more at Yinon. 

Learning Communities

One of Hillel’s most famous sayings is, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am [only] for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"(Perkei Avot 1:14). His three questions have great relevance for the new Messianic Jewish learning.

Studying With Carl

(I asked my friend and hevruta Peter if he'd like to respond to yesterday's post. Here it is:)

One of the nicest things about studying with Carl is that we can say anything to each other, ask any question, without offending the other person, because we both respect each other. This is key.  Another nice thing, is that Carl has never tried to impose his own beliefs on me.  Yet we can speak frankly and honestly about our own faith experiences and struggles.

My Hevruta, My Friend

I promised to tell you about my experience with Peter, my “other” hevruta (the word refers both to learning in pairs and to your partner in that learning).

     Anna (my wife) met Peter and Linda soon after she arrived in the U.S. from her native Netherlands. Fast forward a few years and the four of us had become friends. But after Anna and I had our encounter with Yeshua, things became awkward and the two couples drifted apart. We had little contact for about thirty-five years. In the meanwhile, they’d moved to Austin for work purposes. Then Anna and I moved to Austin a few years ago for family reasons, and we began to get together.

     Of course, Peter and I had both changed over the years. The very thing that had distanced us all those years ago was now a point of common interest. Though Peter has characterized himself as an agnostic, my impression is that God and Peter are playing hide-and-seek.

Kavanah – Directing the Heart

I bring along a compass when I travel. If I pray¹ without a compass or some other way of being certain which way is east, I am not permitted to guess the way. If I am not certain which direction is east, I must opt 

for the backup plan: praying directly to my Father in Heaven.

Hevruta - Learning in Pairs

The hevruta is a traditional Jewish model of two learners studying a text together. It isn’t a teacher-student relationship but a truly collaborative effort of exploration, discussion, and a lot of creativity. Your study-partner is also called a hevruta and I have two of them here in Austin. One is a local rabbi and the other is an old friend who moved here years before I did.

Changing the Culture

Learning is integral to Messianic Jewish spirituality, but it does not stand alone. “The world stands on three things—Torah learning, prayer, and acts of loving-kindness" (Avot 1:2). These are the primary components of a Jewish spirituality that seeks the best possible world for all people. The New School does not advocate that we teeter the world on one pillar or try to balance it on two. We need all three—Torah learning, public and private prayer, and overflowing acts of kindness—to bring wholeness to our community and our world.

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.

Jewish Learning as a Spiritual Practice

In order to begin describing the new Messianic Jewish learning, let me distinguish between learning and study. Study involves the acquisition and mastery of facts and their interconnections. Because followers of Yeshua (Jesus) are directed to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, our learning involves more than acquisition and mastery. It involves all four faculties—heart, mind, soul, and strength—and becomes for us a consuming act of love and worship. Learning is an embodied spiritual practice that enables us to cleave to God and one another.