How often have you heard or said the following about non-fiction:  I’ve just read an amazing book – you should take a look at it – you just need to read the opening and concluding chapters.  How many books could be just as powerful, if not more powerful as an essay?

Now, for those of you who have studied classical Jewish texts: how often have you heard or said the following about text-study:  I wish we had more time for this text; we’ve barely scratched the surface?

Last week, I was studying theories regarding creativity.  Immediately, I looked for books on the topic at the bookstore, added more dead trees to my shelves, and proceeded to bury myself in the reading.  I would read and ruminate, read and ruminate.  At some point, something led me to a TED talk on the subject.  I found myself frantically taking notes on this eighteen minute talk and when it was completed, I was completely energized.  I had an “aha” moment which lead me immediately into some new ideas regarding rabbinic education.

What was the difference between the eighteen minute TED talk and the two books apart from the visuals?  The TED talk immediately got to the point.  The books framed arguments around arguments and by the time the authors made their point, I was tired.  We use too many words these days and their value is going down.  I could probably take almost every two hour lecture down to twenty minutes and my students would walk away with the same ideas AND more energy.  (I’m not talking about the value of discussion groups where most of our learning takes place at RRC.)

Now let me shift to the practice of Jewish text study.  In this context, my interaction with the words is completely the opposite!  The slower that I move through the words, the more energized I get.  My “aha” moments come when I have studied a single verse of Torah for an hour.  Text study is a practice while the study of texts has an objective.  Text study is about questions while the study of text is about answers.

Learning about something does not need a lot of words.  The study of Jewish texts is not that complicated – I could give you a really good sense of the Biblical Book of Ezekiel in twenty minutes.  However, twenty minutes would never be enough time to explore the first verse of Ezekiel.

We need to learn when to speed things up and when to slow down.  Information is easy to acquire – understanding takes a lifetime.