Spring semester

Let me start by saying I'm too tired to put in links to all the phrases, sorry. But this semester I'm taking Homiletics (sermon-writing), Human Relations, Commentaries, Post-Talmudic Halachic Literature, Masoretic Text, and Missionaries. Commentaries is what we call a "text class," reading in Hebrew all the medieval people who have commented on the Torah and Talmud (think Rashi and Maimonides). PTHL is also text, and it's on Jewish law codes after the 500s (think Mishneh Torah, Shulchan Aruch, the Tur).

It's easy to tell that Masoretic Text will be my favorite class this semester. The masorah is every dot and dash and chapter or section break in the Bible, basically everything except the actual letters. A group of people called the Masoretes put those in from 500-900, and an Archbishop named Langdon divided the Bible into chapters in the 1200s. Now, what better way to study the history of the Bible, then to look at all the Bibles throughout history? SO... this class meets in the Rare Book Room of the library! We're actually going to be handling all these original books! I already got to pore over a Bible from the 1500s that had the original binding. Amazing.

Missionaries is all about combating... you guessed it.... Christian missionaries, and learning about Messianic Jews, Jews for Jesus, and the theology/motivations/Bible prooftexting used by Christians. The professor is quite funny, and the session goes by quickly.

Commentaries and Codes, however, have sparked an internal debate. We're reading all of these things in the original Hebrew. On one hand, I understand this: as rabbis we're expected to have a firm handle on Jewish traditional texts, and be able to decipher everything. Most things aren't translated, so we need to learn how to read it ourselves, and not count on a translation.

On the other hand, how often am I, in the field, going to be studying or teaching a medieval or 18th century untranslated text? I can pretty much guarantee that most adult education classes I teach will be in English, and will be utilizing the English translation of a commentary. Maybe I'll use it in a sermon one day? I mean, I can look up all the halacha, all the laws, in one of the numerous English collections out there. What is the value of finding the original? Why shouldn't I read commentaries in English?

I feel disloyal saying this, like I'm betraying my academic side. Of course we should be able to read the original! Then again, the time I spend learning to do that is time I'm not spending on something else I may consider more practical. When I brought this up to one of the professors, he made a vague comment that basically said, I didn't have the authority to determine what was important to know or not, that the curriculum was giving us the background to be educated rabbis.

So I ask you: what do you expect from your rabbis, or religious leaders? Do you want us to know things that may be irrelevant to Reform Jewish life (or reform Catholic, or Lutheran life), even if we don't teach about them in detail? I have a feeling the answer is yes. This depresses me, because it means I'll be spending a LOT of time looking in a dictionary this semester.

To end on an totally different note: this week is HUC admissions interviews, and prospective candidates are taking their Hebrew exams in the library. Yesterday when I walked in I saw three people sitting at tables near the front, looking stressed and erasing vigorously. I passed them and went to my usual spot in the back. A half hour later, the library director came by to say hello. "There was some talk of putting the test-takers at this table," he said. "But then we said, we can't do that! That's Michal's personal desk!" He totally made my day.

Lastly, check out this article from the NY Times, "The Tel Aviv Cluster." Interesting!