Parashat Bereshit

The First Girl I Ever Asked Out
This week we are restarting our yearly learning cycle. For some of you, this is our fourth year together. Analyzing  the Torah every week  through the lens of the classic and modern Jewish commentators, we learn not only about what the text is saying but about ourselves as well. The Torah is the origin story of the Jewish people. We are the stories we tell about ourselves. Origin stories are especially important when it comes to heroes and villains, but that is not what I will be discussing. I will be discussing my own personal origin stories.

The origin story of the universe and humanity are at the start of this week’s Parsha. We are told that all of humanity, over 6 billion people descend from a single couple Adam and Chava.  The Kabbalah teaches us that the way something starts, its beginning, is important in determining the entire course of the endeavor. Adam faced some difficulty in his origin story, he was expelled from paradise. Read More

What is the shape of time?
The Vilna Gaon states in this week’s parsha the creation of time takes place. 
 
What is the shape of time?  The classic perspective is the linear view, time is shaped like a straight line. Time has a beginning and never repeats itself, similar to the apparent daily motion of the sun. A more modern approach is the cyclical view of  time, it  is in the shape of a circle. Time repeats itself and has no absolute beginning or end, similar to the cycles of the moon.   Read More

People of the Book Club

When I was a banker, before Jewish holidays my co-workers were curious about what I was doing with my vacation. For Simchat Torah, I explained that I was part of the largest and longest running book club in the history of the world. Each year we read the same book and we make a huge party and dance around with the book after we finish it, everyone all around the world is reading it and our group has been celebrating its completion for thousands of years. One of my co-workers remarked "what kind of  book club is that, you guys party?" Read More