October 27th, 2017 7 Cheshvan, 5778 This past week, I started teaching a class called Gotta Start Somewhere. Were looking at stories our tradition tells of Rabbis beginnings and how they became engaged in the study of Torah to begin with. Well
October 27th, 2017 7 Cheshvan, 5778
This past week, I started teaching a class called “Gotta Start Somewhere.” We’re looking at stories our tradition tells of Rabbis’ beginnings and how they became engaged in the study of Torah to begin with. (We’ll meet this coming Wednesday at 7PM, and you’re all invited, even if you weren’t at the first session.) We began our study with the story of a first century rabbi named Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. He came from a wealthy family, one which didn’t send boys to yeshiva to learn. His father found him working in the fields one day when he was 22 years old, crying. After a long line of questioning, Eliezer revealed to his father that he was crying because he wished to study Torah.
Eliezer ends up running away to learn Torah, and his story is a long and dramatic one. Eliezer ends up becoming one of the most learned scholars, one of the most often quoted, and one of the rabbis with the most contributions to the rabbinic tradition. And yet, we are reminded that his first foray into Torah study was at age 22 (which was old for them!). Even then, he started with the most practical things: the Shema, Birkat Hamazon, and for 3 years, he learned only two simple laws a day.
As you can imagine, there is much more to the story, but Rabbi Eliezer’s beginnings remind us that it’s never too late for any of us to begin learning. It’s understandable to be intimidated by all that we don’t know, or to think that we don’t really have time to fit Talmud Torah, Torah study, into our busy lives. But we look back to Rabbi Eliezer, whom our tradition reminds us became quite the scholar. We, too, can start at any point in time, even with just a little bite-size learning at a time.
I would love to hear the kinds of things that you’re interested in learning, and hope to see some of you Wednesday evening. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
