Ten Minutes of Torah - more like two days
A rabbi who attends our synagogue has started a great Torah-study programme. It's called ten minutes of Torah. It started recently and is based on the teachings (and ten minutes of Torah programme) of Prof. Nachama Leibowitz with whom he studied Torah. He participated in her programme when for years she posted (proper post, not e-mail) a set of weekly questions around the world, and responded to each individual's responses. The rabbi did his when in the Israeli army! I signed up as soon as I realised it had started, I've been receiving it for about six weeks now. The first four weeks I'd receive it, read it quickly, have some vague ideas about the answers and not write them down. Then all of a sudden it would be the next week and I wouldn't have submitted my thoughts.
This week before I received the questions I decided to dedicate no more than twenty minutes to reading and preparing answers - if the rabbi could do this when he was in the army and had to handwrite his responses, it's a bit lame if I can't do it myself with the aid of a computer, internet resources, and the ability to e-mail.
It's no good for me to just think about something; I find I need to write thoughts down and review them so I can see (a) what I'm thinking and (b) if what I've written accurately conveys my thoughts. I've had a problem with that before - at university one of my tutors said that reading my first essay was a bit like listening to someone wearing a walkman. He explained that what I needed to do was to re-read what I had written and check to see if I'd actually written down what I thought I had. Sound advice (if a little sad that I needed it at 18!). I still have a problem in that if I'm explaining something I will usually leave out something crucial, whether a basic step or not, because I'm too eager to get to the interesting parts.
So anyway, this week's ten minutes of Torah (which can be found here, folks) arrived by e-mail and I dutifully read it; composed a set of responses; re-read the questions; amended a couple of answers; then... well, I had to send it off. I am quite anxious to see how I do, truth be told, but I'm more interested in the fact that I've read a bit of Isiah and some Lamentations and exercised my brain. If I've got a few responses in vaguely the right field I'll be content.
Another small step forward on the track to finding out more about Judaism.
This week before I received the questions I decided to dedicate no more than twenty minutes to reading and preparing answers - if the rabbi could do this when he was in the army and had to handwrite his responses, it's a bit lame if I can't do it myself with the aid of a computer, internet resources, and the ability to e-mail.
It's no good for me to just think about something; I find I need to write thoughts down and review them so I can see (a) what I'm thinking and (b) if what I've written accurately conveys my thoughts. I've had a problem with that before - at university one of my tutors said that reading my first essay was a bit like listening to someone wearing a walkman. He explained that what I needed to do was to re-read what I had written and check to see if I'd actually written down what I thought I had. Sound advice (if a little sad that I needed it at 18!). I still have a problem in that if I'm explaining something I will usually leave out something crucial, whether a basic step or not, because I'm too eager to get to the interesting parts.
So anyway, this week's ten minutes of Torah (which can be found here, folks) arrived by e-mail and I dutifully read it; composed a set of responses; re-read the questions; amended a couple of answers; then... well, I had to send it off. I am quite anxious to see how I do, truth be told, but I'm more interested in the fact that I've read a bit of Isiah and some Lamentations and exercised my brain. If I've got a few responses in vaguely the right field I'll be content.
Another small step forward on the track to finding out more about Judaism.
posted by Chaya at 1:37 pm
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