Soulfood

By Rabbi Elyse Winick
KOACH Associate Director

Every week, barring my erratic travel schedule, I spend an hour with an old friend, a cup of tea and a book. For three years now, Naomi and I have been plowing our way through the midrashic commentaries on the Hamesh Megillot, or Five Scrolls. We've finished the commentaries on Ruth and Esther and we're now about three fourths of the way through Kohelet (Ecclesiastes).

It's hard to make time for this. Work and home are incredibly demanding and there are times where taking an hour to learn feels like an indulgent luxury. I mean, think of all the things I could do with an extra hour. I could fold several loads of laundry or prepare dinner. I could answer 35 emails or write my column for KOACH on Campus. I could plan the next class I was teaching without being under pressure.

Some weeks I do punt. I might be out of town, or just so overwhelmed that I can't fathom taking the time. But though it solves the short term problem of insufficient time, I always notice something is missing. Not that morning, when I cherish those additional 60 minutes. Perhaps not even that day, when I've reached its overflowing end. But at some point during the week, I sense that I am incomplete. My brain feels just a little fuzzy and my soul feels blurred around the edges.

It may be hard to imagine, when you are piled high with reading and exams are looming in the distant (or not-so-distant) future, that there could come a time when you would crave learning. But the sheer joy of learning because you want to, rather than because you have to, is a joy not to be missed.

Naomi and I do not obsess about the things we can't figure out. We don't clock how much time we spend on asking about each other's kids vs. how many pages of text we cover. When we finish a book, we celebrate. Our families share a meal and over dessert we share some of what we've learned. And then the next week we go on to something new. It's liberating. And I'm always inspired.

You can do this too. Take it seriously enough to let it infuse your being, but not so seriously that it becomes a source of stress. Find a friend and pick a book, a book of any kind. It can be in English or Hebrew, it can be ancient or modern. Read aloud and discuss. Avoid doing any homework. Just allow yourself to be embraced by the pleasure of the words, of the discussion.

I know you have schoolwork to do. This is different. This is study to feed your soul. And if you make the time for it, your soul and your heart and your mind will all thank you.

[Posted 10/29/08]