Let My People Know

"When one is studying the Torah, one is in direct communion with God"

The Torah was never considered merely knowledge—as that which one learns with the mind and in which one becomes an expert. 

As one of the sages, Hillel Zeitlin, said: "In many religions there is the notion of a book or doctrine that comes from heaven. We Jews, however, believe that the Torah itself is heaven."

When one is studying the Torah, one is in direct communion with God.

One is not just reading or studying or even seeking inspiration.

In Judaism we, God and man are talking together.

As it is written in the Zohar: there are three things that are connected with each other—the Jews with the Torah, and the Torah with God.

We do not delve into the Torah just in order to know something in our past or to learn how to behave.

To be engaged with Torah is not just the fulfillment of a commandment, a mitzvah; it is in itself being as close to the Almighty as we will ever be.


–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

 

From "Mysticism in the Jewish Tradition" in On Being Free by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz