Editor's Note: As we start this new Torah cycle, we're grateful to share an essay about one reader's journey since joining the Challenge. In an essay she wrote for Tablet Magazine last fall, Jaime Herndon explained that while she grew up Conservative, and even went to Orthodox schools, she fell out of observance for nearly 25 years, until motherhood brought her back to it. After taking part in the Challenge for the last year, she returns to talk about her insights from the year-long journey. And, Jaime, we want you to know that we've heard you - we've added partner content by Rabbi Sacks, and more commentaries that can help you and your son continue to explore the parsha, week after week.
A year ago I embarked on the journey to read the weekly parsha every week for a year with the Simchat Torah Challenge. Because I’d already been reading Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’s commentaries on the parsha for a while, I didn’t think it would be such a change. But reading the actual text as an adult (as opposed to learning it in day school) has been a fascinating experience. I’ve found myself having visceral reactions to some parts of the text while marveling at other parts, writing short Facebook posts about the parshiyot, and I often made beaded bracelets with a phrase that struck me from that week’s parsha.
I think we often take Torah for granted sometimes because of its proximity and familiarity. Because we read it so frequently, we can forget how rich it is—it’s just always there, in the background. We see it as an introductory stepping stone that we learn on the way to Talmud or other texts and it can be easy to forget how layered and complex it really is.
Although this year-long journey is coming to an end soon, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop reading the parsha every week along with commentary and/or other Biblical texts and books. The ancient sage Ben Bag-Bag said about the Torah, “Turn it over, and [again] turn it over, for all is therein.” And that’s what I think I’ve come to love about Torah study, just like what I love about Talmud: the constant challenge, the endless examination and discussion about the text and its meanings and interpretations, along with their application to our world today. I don’t think I was expecting to enjoy the parshyiot and the process of exploring the text so much, to be honest. (Yes, I admit there were weeks that I skimmed because I really couldn’t connect with them this year, but that was not the norm by far).
For my weekly Torah study, I usually read the weekly parsha along with some of Rabbi Sacks’s commentary, and I sought out commentaries from women rabbis and rabbis from marginalized groups, prompting me to think more deeply about the text in ways I might not have considered before. I read commentary from rabbis outside of my denomination, along with plenty of commentary from Jewish thought leaders and people who simply love Torah. I also discovered Steve Silbert’s VisualTorah, a project of his that involves sketch-noting parshiyot, and may try my hand at some sketch-noting myself this coming Torah cycle.
I signed up for STC because I wanted to get a better understanding of the Torah, and while I think I’ve been successful in that way, I also think it’s shown me how much more there is to read and learn from—it’s piqued my interest in Nevi’im and Ketuvim, as well as all the traditional Jewish texts that I have yet to read and study. For the coming year, I’ll be doing the STC again and I am hoping to add Tanakh Yomi as well.