I shall start with...
STUDYING TORAH
Rabbi Jakob J. Petuchowski, a prominent theologian from the twentieth century, remarked that Jews study Torah the way a person reads a love letter, eager to squeeze the last drop of meaning from every word. Lovestruck recipients of letters from their beloved ruminate over why specific words were chosen and not others. They yearn to discover the reason behind every detail the letter writer included. Like the lovestruck person, the Jewish student of Torah sees an opportunity in every word and every letter to interpret and analize the Bible for its deepest meaning.You should teach them diligently to your children, and should speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you get up.—DEUTERONOMY 6:8
The close scrutiny of sacred texts is the hallmark of Jewish study. For example, the Bible says that at the end of the creation of the world, "On the seventh day God finished the work that God had been doing, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that God had done" (Genesis 2:2). At first glance, we might read the text as if it said that God woke up on the seventh day, had some coffee, and finished up a few things that had been left over from work the day before. But a close reading of the text helps us to see that there is an apparent contradiction between the first part of the verse and the second part. Did God work on the seventh day, as it says, "God finished the work that God had been doing," or did God refrain completely from working and rest on the Sabbath, as it says, "and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that God had done"?
Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, an eleventh-century rabbi from France and perhaps the best-known Jewish biblical commentator, suggests two options for understanding the verse. First, he reasoned, God may have finished working at the precise instant that the sixth day transitioned into the seventh day. Thus, we may say that God finished the work and rested on the seventh day. The second possibility is that God did create something on the seventh day. God created rest, because this is what the world was lacking. So the "work" that God did was to created "not working".
These explanations are profound in their simplicity. On one level, Rashi (as Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac is often called) seeks to resolve the apparent contradiction by explaining that it is really not a contradiction at all: God did not work on the seventh day. Instead, God worked until the exact moment that the sixth day moved into the seventh. On the other hand, he suggests that God actually created rest, and therefore, we are obligated to honor God's creation. Resting on the Sabbath is more than simply the cessation of work. Rather, it should be viewed as a unique gift from God, specifically created for us.
One other aspect of Rashi's commentary is worth noting. He offers two ways of looking at the apparent paradox in the text. This has far-reaching implications. One of the most striking aspects of Jewish Bible study is the absence of any single authoritative interpretation. There is no fundamentalism in Jewish Bible study. No one can point to a given interpretation and say that this and only this is what the Bible means. As we see in Rashi's interpretations, even an individual of his caliber feels free to say that there are different possible interpretations for each verse.
Some well-known interpreters' analyses are given more credence than others' because of their stature, but seldom is there unanimous agreement across Jewish communities and through time as to what a given word of the Bible means. The Rabbis say that the Torah has seventy faces, meaning that there are at least seventy different interpretations for every letter of the Torah. I have heard it said by Christians who embark on a course of Jewish study that it is precisely this lack of dogma, this openness to different understandings of the revealed word, that is the most difficult – and the most interesting – aspect of the Jewish approach to study.
While Jewish study is open to varying, often conflicting, interpretations of the sacred text, most students rely on the major interpreters as a starting point in understanding the Torah. Simply put, most Jews do not study the Bible without at least one commentary alongside them. Often it is the commentary of Rashi. Maybe it is the work of Maimonides. It might be a collection of midrashim – an array of interpretations that take the form of stories about the biblical characters.Whatever classic work it is, Jewish study begins by reading the Bible through the lens of historical interpretation. By understanding the Bible through the interpretation of others, the study of Torah becomes an ongoing conversation through time. In studying the Torah, you enter that historical dialogue and quickly become part of it.
