When a Jewish baby is born or when a boy or girl reaches the age of bar or bat mitzvah, the desire of the people is that he or she arrives at a life of Torah, of Chuppah and of Maasim Tovim. Chuppah means the canopy used in the wedding ceremony and Maasim Tovim means good deeds. But arriving at a life of Torah means, among other things, arriving at a life of study.

According to Jewish tradition, God gave the Torah to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, as a source of blessings and life. In other words, God, when giving the Torah to the Jews, seemed to say to them: “Here, take this book home and tell me what you think of it.” And ever since then, they have been reading and studying it and telling God and themselves what they think His Book is. These comments appear in many places: in the Talmud and in the sermons of the rabbis, in works of fiction and nonfiction, but especially in any conversation between two or more Jews studying Torah together.

Judaism’s special way of studying Torah is through the method of “Midrash,” a word that in Hebrew means to seek, investigate, or even demand. Midrash transforms reading into an imaginative yet disciplined search for Revelation, typified by a passion that is at once personal and collective, scholarly and creative, arduous and fun.

Torah study is firmly grounded in human relationships. The Talmud especially discourages solitary study, and the rabbis advise “to get yourself a teacher and a study partner” and “to form groups for the purpose of study, since Torah can only be acquired in a group.” The real secret of Jewish survival is these constant conversations within these groups, which have been going on for three and a half thousand years.

These conversations have always been endless debates. Those who seek a simple catechism of faith to memorize must be confused and disappointed with the way Jewish pedagogy is dialectical and argumentative. Being Jewish means immersing oneself in the give and take that is Talmudic argument. And the only way to master this art of interpreting the Torah is through continuous study. Indeed, we were born, among other things, to study.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant.