Deuteronomy Making Torah Expansive: The Work of Personal and World Transformation
Parashat Vayelech Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman and Rabbi Yochanan ben Elazar, two 3rd century rabbinic scholars, were standing in the marketplace one day. Rabbi Shmuel turns to his teacher and says, ‘Teach me some mishna.’ Rabbi Yochanan responds, ‘Go to the house of learning, and I will teach you there.’ A good student of Torah, Rabbi Shmuel replies, ‘But haven’t you taught me the verse from Proverbs (1:20):
חָכְמוֹת בַּחוּץ תָּרֹנָּה בָּרְחֹבוֹת תִּתֵּן קוֹלָהּ
“Wisdom [by which he means Torah] cries aloud in the streets, raises her voice in the open squares?!’”
Rabbi Yochanan responds to his student, ‘You know how to לִקְרוֹת, to read or recite words of scripture, but not how to לִשְׁנוֹת, to study mishna.’ The teacher then goes on to implicitly demonstrate the difference by reinterpreting the verse.
He explains that the word בַּחוּץ, in the street, in the Proverbs verse does not mean simply outdoors, just anywhere. It actually should be read as בְּחוּצָהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה, in the street or domain of Torah. And the domain of Torah is defined, Rabbi Yochanan teaches, by the next word in the verse, בָּרְחֹבוֹת, open squares. This word should also not be read in the obvious contextual way, but as בִּמְקוֹם שֶׁמַּרְחִיבִין, a place where Torah can spread out. This of course, says Rabbi Yochanan, is the houses of prayer and learning. (Midrash Tanchuma, Bechukotai, Siman 3).
I am drawn to this midrash because of the timely and timeless question that Rabbi Shmuel asks: can you bring the teachings of our tradition from the study hall out into the world where it belongs and is desperately needed? What is the point of all this studying about sacred living if it doesn’t come with us into the substance of our lives as we walk through the world? In this chaotic, disturbing time and world we are living, Rabbi Shmuel’s question is indeed urgent.
And Rabbi Yochanan’s response, a clearly forced reading of the passage from Proverbs, is instructive for us. It hinges on his understanding of two types of learning and knowledge: לִקְרוֹת and לִשְׁנוֹת.
לִקְרוֹת means to read or recite, specifically passages from Tanakh. It also means to greet or call out and is phonetically connected to קרה, an event or chance happening. Rabbi Yochanan is using this word to mean a type of learning and knowledge that is superficial in nature. It is knowledge that enables one to deploy a relevant verse for a given situation almost like a slogan or bumpersticker, filtering the encounter into what already knows to be true. It makes interaction with the world one of happenstance, not of depth. This type of engagement with Torah, with others, and with the world is one of informing, not transforming.
לִשְׁנוֹת is very different. It refers to the study of Mishna, the first collection of rabbinic teachings in 200 CE. It means to teach, to study, to repeat. It is learning that happens through repetition. It requires dedication, diligence, determination, and it reflects and reinforces a deep and enduring relationship to Torah. From that same root, we also get the word שִׁנּוּי, to change. For Rabbi Yochanan, לִשְׁנוֹת is a type of learning and leadership that is consistent, dedicated, resilient, and transformative.
In this midrash, Rabbi Yochanan recognizes Rabbi Shmuel is knowledgeable and dedicated but still in a critical stage of growth. He has information, not knowledge – data, not da’at, which is a deep, intimate form of knowing. Rabbi Yochanan’s message to his student, and to us, is that if we really want to bring our tradition’s insights and teachings out into the world, we need to transform ourselves in relation to Torah.
To do so, we must go to a place where Torah becomes expansive so that Torah can become expansive in us. And when we do so, that expansiveness can flow through us out into the world.
In a few short days, as Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe begin, Jewish people all over the world will go to batei kinesset, our houses of prayer, for many, many hours. Parashat Nitzavim, which we read this Shabbat, captures the essential challenge we will face as we sit in these places where Torah is vast. During the Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe, we are invited mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to feel as if we are living the opening verses of the parasha – that we are standing before God, right now, invited to return to and renew our relationship with and commitment to God and sacred living (Deuteronomy 29:9-11). More than that, we are not just warmly welcomed back to this true and essential way of living. At the end of the parashah we are commanded to do so, as it says:
I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your offspring will live (Deuteronomy 30:19).
The Jewish understanding of God and the cosmos is that while we have free choice, God needs us. We are each here to play our unique, particular, sacred, essential role. We must, for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of the world, choose life. We go to shul on these days to help us with this process. We go to a place where Torah –our people’s vast, ongoing, millennial conversation of sacred living that teaches us how to choose life – spreads out so that it can spread out in us.
And we pray and cultivate faith that it can spread through us, into a world in desperate need of repair.
Rabbi Daniel Klein is Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He was ordained by Hebrew College in 2010 and previously served as Dean of Students and Director of Admissions & Student Life.
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