Welcome to Torah Study

Yesterday, I went to my first Torah study group. I came away with mixed feelings.

It started out with a nice personal tour of the facilities, including the beautiful 100-year-old sanctuary and the brand new, starkly and unapologetically modern chapel, connected by the social hall named after a long-serving former rabbi. 

I joined the group in a classroom at the end of a hall. I arrived in time to find a good seat along the long table. The meeting ended up standing-room-only--probably 35 people. We had bagels with schmear and coffee, courtesy of one of the class members; a list circulated for others to volunteer this service for upcoming weeks. 

The class, I found out later, has been meeting for many years, and there were some obvious "regulars."

So, what was it like? The text for the day was the very beginning of the book of Job, from the Writings. I'd been looking forward to a stimulating, fast-moving study, but I felt there was too much nattering about trivial details before starting the actual examination of Job. I was annoyed by the know-it-all tone of a few of the class members. It reminded me of my mid-college years of sitting in a philosophy class waiting for things to move on. I didn’t have much to add on this first visit, but it seemed that we could have progressed more quickly and focused more on the meaning of the text. After about an hour and a quarter the group broke up--until next time.

There were a lot of elderly people there, and I made me uncomfortable. It felt like a diversion at the Jewish retirement home. As a member of a rock group and what I consider to be a "youthful" 58, it just felt too slow-moving. One ancient woman at the other end of the table stood up (very slowly) to announce her upcoming hip replacement surgery. Sigh. A distinguished-looking older African American man near me, wearing a middle-eastern style kippah, started going on and on about something he deemed relevant from another place in the Torah and the rabbi had to gently refocus the group.

It's quite possible that those who are interested in Torah study tend to be older folks who aren't sitting glued to their Facebook or other electronic social activities. It was only my first time there, and I brought in my own prejudices and habits. I felt that the "students" were blabbing on about their interpretations, but that may very well be what the class is about--to get different views and opinions on the material to somehow illuminate the text for everyone. Perhaps that's the ideal, but when I was a student, I wanted to hear what the teacher had to say, and I found this kind of woolgathering an inpediment. But it may be that I tend toward passivity and acceptance of the words of "experts," when one of the goals of Torah study is to actively question the material. But is fussing over the details beneficial or just intellectual fooling around?

Perhaps a smaller, younger group might work better for me. I'm not sure if I should perhaps visit this group again and try to come back with a different attitude. At the speed it was moving, though, it could take a decade to get through the Torah one time. But maybe there's no hurry.