Who We Are

Our History

Clergy

Staff

Leadership

Our Synagogue

News & Schmooze

Upcoming Events

Member Profiles

Request Information

How to become a TI member

M'Kom Torah - A Place of Torah

Photo Gallery

A Post-Kiddush Crowd Drawn to Torah Study.........posted Jan 31, 2008

Rather, TI members have taken with great gusto to the weekly study of a Torah portion following Kiddush and shared greetings in the social hall. Typically, the sessions that follow in the Flax Library attact two dozen or more congregants - some who admittedly skip Shacharit but time their arrival at the synagogue accordingly to partake in a lively discussion and analysis of a parashah.

Each of the hour-long sessions is facilitated by a volunteer who prepares during the week prior. Rabbi Gorin offered to kick off the series when the weekly forum began in mid-October.

The brainchild behind the Torah study sessions is longtime TI member Cliff Fishman, who first encountered Shabbat study at Heska Amuna Synagogue in Knoxville, Tenn., where he was a visiting professor of law at the University of Tennessee during fall 2005. There the rabbi would lead a discussion of the next week's parashah on most Shabbat afternoons.

"I was looking for a way to prolong Shabbat (at Tikvat Israel)," he says. "To be more precise, once services and the Kiddush are over, it is generally difficult for me to preserve the sense that Shabbat is different than the rest of the week. Torah study maintains that feeling of specialness a bit longer."

Several regulars say they find the Torah study sessions stimulating and rewarding, particularly because the attending members apply divergent perspectives to the subject.

"Participants have a wide variety of personal beliefs and life experiences to bring to the discussion," says Mary Meyerson. "It's a chance to think about things I wouldn't normally consider. ... Best of all, everyone is very respectful of the diversity of opinions expressed. That's not always been my experience in other study sessions."

Sometimes the discussants wrestle with the meaning or significance of a single Hebrew word. Other times they try to assess particular personalities and episodes in the Torah. Or they try to uncover motivation of individual actors. Was Jacob's deception of Isaac a crass attempt to take what was not his or was this an example of someone doing what was considered necessary? Did Joseph intend all along to reveal himself to his brothers or was his goal, initially, to bring Benjamin to his side

Often participants find they can draw personal meaning. What lessons about parenting can be learned from Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca or Jacob

"At one session [the presenter] shared her insights into why we ask that our sons be like Ephraim and Menasheh and how she had decided she couldn't ask this blessing for her son until she understood why she was doing it," Felicia Black, a weekly attendee, says.

Preparing to lead a Torah study session in front of other adults, including Rabbi Gorin most weeks, can be a bit intimidating at first. In January, Sam Freedenberg discussed the first seven plagues during which he expressed his particular intrigue with the underlying structure of the afflictions.

"While I have done some Torah study before, I have only actually led it in middle school-level Sunday school classes I had taught," Freedenberg concedes. "It's not easy to lead such study, and I found it time-consuming and challenging to prepare. You're not preaching and you're not really teaching. You have some ideas on how you want the session to unfold, and you want to ask the right kind of questions that others are going to find intriguing and that will generate an interesting discussion.

"But you don't have all of the answers like a teacher is supposed to have, and you have to be prepared to answer a question with either 'I don't know,' or better, a question of your own."

Meyerson, who has facilitated two sessions, says she could only stand and grin "when I realized that the discussion was going in directions I hadn't anticipated. That's such a wonderful feeling as a teacher when students grab a topic and make it their own -- it's a feeling I'd not had at Tikvat Israel before because I've taught and directed at other congregations in the area."

Pam Gorin, who also has led two study sessions to date, admits she may have a slightly easier time with preparation owing to the abundance of resources accessible in her own home. But even so, she says, "When you present to the group, you never quite know what the reaction will be and we've had some very interesting discussions."

Several congregants say the Torah study with fellow congregants has become a much anticipated part of their lives. Meyerson., for instance, says, "I often find myself reflecting on bits of our discussion and the insights I've gained in the following week. And by Friday morning, I find myself eagerly waiting until 25 minutes after Kiddush begins on Saturday afternoon."

Felicia Black notes that humor often pervades the discussions. "The fact is, it's fun," she says.

Adds Fishman: "If I sense the mood correctly, we are generally disappointed when it is time to end the discussion and go home."

-- Jay P. Goldman