Remember how, last week, I described the Book of Devarim as Moses’
valedictory address? This book largely
consists of his final exhortations to the people Israel as the time draws near
for him to leave them. The final book of
the Torah is commonly called ‘Deuteronomy.’
This comes from the Greek words meaning ‘Second Telling.’ This acknowledges that much of the book’s
content as restated, having been told already in the earlier parts of the
Torah.
The Ten Commandments
are a good example of this. They are
first promulgated in the Book of Exodus, Parashat Yitro. They are repeated, in a slightly different
form, here in Parashat Ve’etchanan.
But not all the
important passages in Deuteronomy are just restatements of what we’ve been told
before. A good example is found in this
week’s reading, in the Sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. There we find the passage we know well,
probably better than any other words of the Torah because we recite or chant it
in Hebrew in every evening and morning service during the year. I’m referring to The Shema, or at least the
first part of the Shema: Deuteronomy
six, verses four through nine. How well
do we know this passage? I would suggest
that it is so well known that you can recite it in Hebrew from
memory. And even if you cannot translate
Hebrew into English, you can probably recite the Shema in English translation,
at least in one of its more popular renderings.
Many of us know a
number of other biblical passages because they are found in the siddur or
because they are commonly used in various occasions. A good example is the 23rd chapter
of the Book of Psalms. It’s used in
almost every funeral, but also other memorial occasions. Most of us know its words, in Hebrew and
English, by memory. So if we repeat a
passage of scripture enough times, it becomes ‘available’ to us at any time, for
any reason.
I’m guessing that each one of us has
encountered, somewhere along the way, an Evangelical Christian who in
conversation was able to cite and recite Bible verses: far in excess of one key passage. And probably in order to make debating
points. Eyal recently had his first such
experience. He accepted an invitation to
drop in to some coffeehouse-type place in Boulder, Colorado. Turns out it was a ‘Messianic,’ or Christian,
outreach. The man who was trying to
convince Eyal, freely cited a number of verses.
Now Eyal was not convinced, but he was somewhat impressed at the
man’s memorization of verses. Having
grown up in a Jewish household and attended a Jewish high school, he’d never
experienced this.
I explained to Eyal
that this way of learning Bible, was popularized by an Evangelical group called
The Navigators years ago. They ‘perfected’
it and provide, for a nominal cost, decks of flashcards which believers use as
an aid for the memorization. The decks
of cards are organised around the various themes in the Bible. And the memorization puts these verses at one’s
fingertips, without the need to grope for such passages during a conversation.
Eyal asked me why we
Jews don’t use this method of learning Tanach verses, so that we have them at
our fingertips. I’ve actually been asked
this more than once. Why don’t we
Jews use this method, since it’s relatively easy, to place into our memory the
key verses of Tanach? That way, we
could have at our fingertips what the Tanach says, so that we could respond to
others’ questions and not hem and haw about what the scriptures teach, and
where.
I usually answer this
by explaining that such memorization enables one to cite verses. But the danger is that, without
knowing the context, the surrounding text, one cannot fully understand
what the Tanach is teaching us. Another
factor, is that we don’t tend to use Tanach as a verbal ‘weapon,’ to make
debating points. Instead, we try to
grasp it as an organic whole, a sort of conversation that states certain specific
points but has a discernable overall thrust that is at the heart of the matter. The enterprise of trying to convince others
of our religious position, is very much out-of-favour in Jewish circles. For centuries, our ‘daughter’ faiths have
embraced proselytization, specifically aimed at Jews, as a key religious
practice. Since antiquity, we generally
have not.
That said, I have to
add that the devotion to the words of scripture, to the point that one carries
around a deck of flash cards for learning Bible verses, is nothing short of praiseworthy.
If there is a danger involved,
that of taking words out of their context, then look at the potential gain. Jews generally are not so concerned about
debating points regarding the Torah. But
knowing scripture this way is something worthwhile to strive for.
Many Jews will say that they are
devoted to Torah, but expend little effort getting to know what it says. Perhaps one day, a Jewish teacher will undertake
a project of collecting the verses from our scriptures, that a Jew aught of
have at his fingertips. Perhaps it has already
been done. In any case, such a
collection would be a worthwhile project. It would be a way of helping us to fulfil the
very instruction that we find in the text of the Ve’ahavta. After all, it instructs us: These words, which I command you this day,
shall be upon your heart.
So, the enterprise of committing
scripture to memory is more than praiseworthy.
It is commanded. How we do it is
not terribly important. But the
enterprise of learning the words of Torah, to the point where we can recite
them from memory, is already commanded unequivocally. There are Jews who have the entire Torah
committed to memory. I’m not one of them! I don’t think that such a herculean
accomplishment is expected of each one of us. But it isn’t beyond each one of us to have,
committed to memory, key important verses. Think about it, and think about how you
might fulfil this commandment. Shabbat
shalom.
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