It sounds simple enough. Write a five- to eight-page paper on the topic, “What is the value of rabbinics to today’s messianic believer?” using Rabbi Akiba’s Messiah: The Origins of Rabbinic Authority by Dan Gruber as a primary source. Yet picking out an HDMI cable that will work seamlessly between a PlayStation 3 and a 1080p HDTV would in many ways be an easier task.
Yet the assignment’s simplicity is deceptive. Sure, I can pump out a paper of that length in a matter of a few hours, but the point is to prove I’ve mastered the reading material. More than that, even, is to prove to myself that I understand the material enough to have an informed opinion on it.
That’s not easy; with this topic – the origins of rabbinics – I am out of my familiar territory. Much of the information is fresh and new to me. The next class – the Church and the Jews – won’t be quite so alien. I could almost write the paper now. Not so with this one.
Although it may not seem like it, even this first class is vitally important. It very easily could determine much of my doctrinal outlook on rabbinics. It’s going to require some deep thought.
Slow and imperfect human memory
Monday, March 12th, 2007
If only the human mind were as reliable as computer memory. It would be so easy to study Torah and related materials, then. Easy to recall all the details. For the human mind, however, it’s not a simple matter of uploading and downloading information.
Over several weeks, one reads a couple hundred pages of a textbook, sometimes over and over again. The mind engages, soaks in facts, then starts the process of comparing that information to all their prior life experiences, trying to make connections, spot contradictions, and filter it all into an end product called truth. Or at least an opinion on the truth of the matter.
Of course, it’s good practice. If I do go all the way down this path to ordination, I will eventually be expected to do this sort of thing every week and distill it into a couple end products: a Torah commentary and a sermon. As much work as it is, it’s exciting.
Tags: computer memory, ordination, sermon, Torah commentary
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