Shabbat Shalom
by Rabbi Jon Adland
May 21, 2010
Tonight five women - Lea Coleman, Erin Healey, Diane Healey, Shelly Sachs, and Barbie Stenacker - will fulfill a dream by leading a worship service and reading from the Torah. This 5770 b'not mitzvah class has been studying together with me since last fall. They have laughed and cried on this journey toward fulfilling their dream and tonight their dream becomes real. It has been my honor over my years as a rabbi to help many adults and a few teens deepen their Jewish commitment through serious engagement in Jewish study and texts.
The first part of Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation's mission statement is Torah (study). I have urged adults at every stop on my Jewish journey to deepen their knowledge and understanding of Judaism through adult Jewish study. I truly believe that to be a leader of the Jewish people one must understand what Judaism is, what it says about living life, commitment, justice, and God, and how to make that knowledge a vital and integral part of one's life. Jewish study isn't only for leadership, but for every Jew. We have a rich and exciting history of knowledge that takes us back to the time of our Exodus from Egypt until today. No one generation of Jews has ever felt possessive of their understanding that it is built on what came before and will be added to what is yet to come. Torah could be understood in a narrow sense as the Five Books of Moses, but in a broader sense Torah is cumulative knowledge from yesterday to today.
One of the names Jews are known by is the People of the Book. Outsiders have always seen the Jewish people as literate and thoughtful. Others may not agree with Jewish culture, theology, or practice, but it was always known that we studied, debated, and added to the layers of insights that came before us.
The sad commentary though is that in our day most of the Jewish education going on is for the youth and ends in 10th grade. Jewish adults are just too busy managing their lives to take time once a week to study for its own sake what it means to be Jewish, the richness of Jewish wisdom in the holy texts, or some other aspect of Judaism. Though over the last 30 years more children have gone to summer camp, celebrated a bar or bat mitzvah and attended religious school, there are less and less Jewish adults who rise above a pediatric understanding of Judaism. There is no better time than today and no better today than Shabbat to change this adult perception. It doesn't have to be inundating, but it has to be something. Subscribe to the URJ's Ten Minutes of Torah or any number of websites that offer Jewish learning. Get a Torah commentary and read the weekly parasha and a bit of commentary. Subscribe to a Jewish newspaper or magazine. Go to Torah study.
Our five women tonight decided that they wanted to deepen their knowledge and commitment to Judaism. They've studied, debated and prepared for this b'not mitzvah evening. I salute them and hope that others will follow in the years to come.
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