February 14th, 2025

It is strange how often I find myself asking “What is Torah?” 

As a rabbi, one might think the answer would be straightforward. Yet, as both a student and a teacher, I keep returning to this question. Not just what can Torah teach us, but what is Torah itself? It comes up in nearly every grade at Torah school, as they iteratively expand their understanding of what Torah includes. From the sacred scroll to the ever-expanding midrashic traditions, to their own ideas and insights. It comes up in conversation with my B’nei Mitzvah students as we prepare for their Dvar Torah. It comes up on Simchat Torah. And certainly it comes up this week, as we read parshat Yitro, which includes an account of the giving of Torah on Mt. Sinai. 

At its root, Torah comes from the root ירי meaning to point, aim, shoot or direct. The same root creates the word yoreh, the first drenching rainfall at the beginning of the farming season, which one midrash describes as “rain that pervades and satisfies the earth and gives her drink down to the deep.” Rain is afterall water directed at the earth. It is also an archery term, used when one points an arrow at its target. 

From these two usages alone, we learn that Torah is meant to sustain us at our core and direct us on our path. 

I thought of all of this on Monday night, as I had the honor of hearing Ta-Nehisi Coates read from his new book “The Message.” (Spoiler: I am planning a virtual Omer book group for this book in May, in case you want to reserve a copy at the library now!) 

Coates spoke to a crowded auditorium at Swarthmore College. During the Q&A students repeatedly asked him for advice, which he was very reluctant to offer, with one exception. 

He implored these young adults to stop using social media in general and X specifically. Quoting, “It is extremely important that you not engage in distraction. Do not spend time trying to disprove people who do not believe you to be human. You’ll never win.” He went on to describe social media as addictive, defeatist, and designed to drag you into irresolvable fights with people with whom your disagreements are minor. He concluded, “Get it off your phones!”

This was a stark moment. I think the crowd was looking for organizing advice, not screen time suggestions. I know our relationships to screens and digital communities are complex. And even as I tend to agree with Coates’ advice, I am aware that social media is a place of so much connection and resource sharing. So even more than his directive, I am drawn to the sentiment behind it. 

We find ourselves in uncertain times. Heed Coates’s sacred advice, “It is extremely important that you not engage in distraction.” Whatever that may be for you. There is a tension between  stay informed and becoming distressed, even panicked. This is by design. Coates reminded me we need to be disciplined in our intake of the news. The world needs your attention whole, unfragmented, clear, critical, alert, aware. 

In my own life, Torah serves as the opposite of a distraction. It is an anchor, pulling me down through the present to something ancient and enduring. It is directional. It is meant to guide and quench. Time studying Torah is time well spent. 

Each week Torah is here to connect you down to the deep. 

I will end with prophetic words that come directly from this week’s parsha. In Exodus 19, the Holy One tells Moses to tell the Isrealites, it’s me God, remember “How I carried you on eagles’ wings!?”
וָאֶשָּׂ֤א אֶתְכֶם֙ עַל־כַּנְפֵ֣י נְשָׁרִ֔ים

I am a green football fan (pun intended). The city pride has been palpable and contagious. What a joy to be carried on these Eagles’ wings! Go Birds ! And to imagine this feeling as the origin story of a collective faith that bound us together and first connected us to something Ineffable.