It is my honor to introduce you to Limmud North America’s newest publication: 49 Steps. This project represents the core of what Limmud is all about – providing experiences for Jews of all backgrounds to strengthen their Jewish identity and connection through learning.
On Passover, the Jewish people assume their national identity and on Shavuot, 49 days later, we assume our spiritual identity, our covenantal relationship with God at Mount Sinai. The midrash tells us that, as in inducement, God held the mountain over the people and threatened to drop it if they did not accept the Ten Commandments.
My friend, Rabbi David Ingber, takes a different approach to the midrash. He teaches that God held the mountain over God’s people to show them God’s compassion, providing shade in the hot desert sun. I would like to take this interpretation a step further. I believe that God wanted to not only demonstrate God’s love but also to show God’s tolerance and understanding that it was all a bit much. I have to believe that God really did not think that as humans we could all buy into this system of laws and rules 100%; some of us would and some of us wouldn’t, some of us would fall back and some would be gung-ho. I think that this was God’s way of saying, “All right, this is a fluid process; be the best you can be.”
At Limmud, we know that Jewish learning is a process, a journey with many entry points that takes each of us one step further on our Jewish journeys. In the next seven weeks we’ll provide you with 49 opportunities to hear from thinkers, change-makers and teachers representing the broad fabric of North American Jewry.
When one completes a tractate of Talmud, it is a celebratory moment, and we pledge to one day revisit the tractate with the words “hadran alach.” Each year, as we mark the 49 days from Passover to Shavuot, we find ourselves in different places on our individual Jewish journeys. Hadran alach; join me on this path of exploration and renewal.
