the Torah project

Jews all over the world read the same Torah portion every week all year long.  It takes one year to read the whole Torah (the 5 books of Moses).  The Torah is read on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays (Shabbat).

So I have a plan.  Not a vow because it’s not a good idea to make a vow.  Just a plan.  I’m going to read the Torah following this year’s cycle.  We’ve just begun the year 5770, and Simchat Torah marks the end of last year’s reading and the beginning of this year’s.  October 10, 2009/23 Tishrei, 5770.

There’s a reason for my plan.  I love being a Jew.  But sometimes I feel like I just don’t get it.  And the Torah is the center of the Jewish world, so that seems like a logical place to start.  I’ve read Genesis lots of times.  It’s a good story, easy to read, kind of crazy.  And I’ve seen Evan Almighty.  But it must be much more than a story, and I want to find out, if it is more than a story, what exactly it is.  And what it might mean to me, or how it might connect to me.

So I’ll read and I’ll write.  Not great drashes or deeply religious insight probably.  I hope this isn’t offensive, but I’m going to use the Torah as a writing prompt and see what comes of it.  Maybe I’ll learn something about being a Jew, or something about myself, or maybe something about life.  Or maybe nothing at all.  I’m certainly no bible scholar (duh) and not on the rabbinic path.  But I do love to read and I do love to write….

…and I just turned 50.  So this is my mid-life crisis.  Better than a little hottie with six pack abs and better than a shiny little sports car, right?

1 reply
  1. meredith says:

    when was your birthday? and what is it with this turning 50 thing? i will be 50 on november 6th and this has been such an intense year. as you know, this past weekend was especially intense. i got to see my husband’s name in the credits of a movie for the very first time, the culmination of twelve years of re-directing family energy so that he could change careers, and i got to begin the transformation of marin. i’m tired.

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