On Saturday mornings I get my brain in gear for Torah study at Congregation Beth Am. It’s clearly the most intellectually stimulating hour of my week.
When I started attending four years ago, there were some 60 folks. These days there are about 100, ranging in age from 20 to 80-plus. Dressed in everything from biking attire to suits, there are atheists and the observant, Israelis and ex-Soviets, Jews-by-choice, a few Christians and a vociferous Marxist. While some quote chapter and verse with facility, many — like me — grew up with no Jewish education. Others went to Hebrew or Sunday school, often learning little Hebrew and less Bible.
Beyond bagels and shmoozing, we gather in Los Altos Hills to learn not only about the foundation of Judaism, but the parts of the Bible that make us squirm. Moving methodically from Genesis to Deuteronomy at a few lines each week, getting through the Five Books takes years.
Prohibitions are always fodder for debate — like the injunctions against wearing clothes of the opposite sex, combining wool and linen in a single garment, sowing two kinds of seed in a vineyard, or letting an ox and an ass plow together. Those trigger discussions on genetic engineering, cross-breeding, cross-dressing and the wonder of mules.
Then there’s kashrut. How did we get from not seething a calf in its mother’s milk to not browning a chicken in butter? Ever tried to milk a hen?
Under the adept leadership of Rabbi Janet Marder, we learn not just about the Bible and the commentators. We also learn about one another. No comments are off-limits. Responding to an off-the-wall take, the rabbi might say, “That’s an interesting interpretation. Let’s see what the commentators have to say.”
Harv Citrin of Palo Alto has been attending for years. Growing up in Brooklyn, he became Orthodox for a time and then rejected the rituals and prohibitions. “The beauty of the Torah study … is the ability to hear how others think about the words and how they react to them, and how I react to their reactions,” he says. “When I open up my mouth, which I do more frequently than many, it is not to convince anybody else but a way to convince myself.”
Psychologist Michael Hahn, a regular attendee, is one of several participants from nearby Congregation Kol Emeth. “The depth and breadth of [Marder’s] knowledge makes it one of the highlights of my week,” he said.
You don’t have to be Jewish to participate. Nora Buys, a member of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, was introduced to the group by a fellow church member and Christian educator. “It’s a foundation for what I believe in, and it makes the foundation stronger,” she says. “You never stop asking questions. I am still asking questions and presume I will be asking them until I die, because if you see everything in black and white, you’re nuts.”
Janet Silver Ghent, former senior editor of j., is a freelance writer/editor and voice student living in Palo Alto. She can be reached at [email protected].