Jewish and other sacred texts are more available in more languages to more people than at any time in human history. This leads to greater democratization of faith, which is a good thing. But the ready availability of such material can also make it easier for us to read alone, and that is not so good.
Reading sacred texts alone, for both clergy and laypeople, is a bit like masturbation – it’s safe and fun, but not likely to be as productive as sex with a partner. And before anyone misconstrues this analogy, in no way do I endorse the notion that all human sexuality should have the potential to create a life. Jewish tradition, as understood by almost all authorities, approves of many, if not all forms of birth control. But in both the bedroom and in the study hall, it prefers partnerships to solo acts.
Both sex and study are understood as acts of discovery.
The Hebrew Bible call sex “knowing”, as in “Adam knew Eve, his wife”. That is not a euphemistic term employed by a text uncomfortable with sex. It is the first description of what it means for sex to be sacred – it brings us to new levels of knowledge and understanding about our partner, it overcomes the loneliness which Adam experiences and for which the Bible describes Eve as the antidote.
The same can be said for study, which is traditionally conducted in a beit midrash, or house of searching. Jewish tradition imagines that study of sacred texts is not simply about acquiring necessary knowledge or getting the right answers. In fact, Jewish intellectual tradition is a multi-vocal conversation comprised of largely unresolved controversies and multiple competing opinions.
The process of learning with a partner and doing so in a setting which invites discovery and surprise is as old as Jewish learning itself. And when Jewish, or any other sacred tradition, loses touch with that methodology, it falls prey to self-serving dogmatists who reduce study to nothing more than repetitious proof-texting designed to affirm what they already believe.
Of course, there is no such thing as truly reading alone. We are always accompanied by the readings, interpretations, cultural contexts and presumptions which shape that which we read. Which means that the real issue is less, who is in the room with you when you read, and more whether or not you find yourself surprised by that which you read and the conclusions to which your reading leads. When that happens, the reading in which one is engaged is a sacred process and the book one is reading is sacred too.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted February 20, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I try to make a Saturday afternoon Minyan because it is hard to fill in Winter [people head for Florida], and because we have discussions of Judaic questions between Minchah and Mairev. Also because the Torah is chanted during Minchah, and I enjoy reading the English translation. Because of the time difference between when the events in the Torah are estimated to have taken place and the time when it was first written down are separated by a long period of oral rendition, the text may be influenced by the writer as much as by the oral tradition. I try to look at the period of history covered, what customs may have been then, and to what extent the text may “short-cut” what caused it to be written down as it was. Mishpatim of last Saturday has a perplexing phrase about a slave getting his freedom after seven years of servitude, but that if the master gave him a wife [also a slave], she would not be freed with him, and the text omitted “until she had served seven years”. I assumed that the male slave was important to his master, and that the woman slave was a gift. She could have been purchased specially as a gift, or been purchased earlier than when she was a gift, but less than seven years. If the master was a good husbandman, he would have considered that as good practice with slaves, she should serve her seven years before freedom, even though married. The text is silent about this, but I am satisfied that the writer felt that a reader would be cognizant of these customs and would interpolate this knowledge without having to to add the words to the Torah. I am anxious for tomorrow to arrive [Saturday], to discuss this with friends who attend this Minyan to see how they feel about my interpretation.
posted February 20, 2009 at 1:56 pm
“Reading sacred texts alone, for both clergy and laypeople, is a bit like masturbation”
You really, REALLY need to work on your similes.
posted February 20, 2009 at 2:17 pm
One can not compair sacred reading to ANY form of sex.
posted February 20, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Why not? Sex is sacred and can lead to life. Torah is sacred and leads to life as well.
posted February 20, 2009 at 6:39 pm
OK – you got me with the sex comments – I thought “WHAT?” The thing is that if we took sex as G-d intends it and created it to be then this is a perfect example. Keeping that part of our lives w/in this context though just doesn’t seem to be real “popular” in our “I have a right to do whatever I want to do” society. Anyway…
The thing that bugs me is how difficult it is to create that multi-vocal environment these days. When it happens, so much can be gained by each person involved and all are blessed. We are a society that is so busy that we tend to think, “I don’t have time to study – just tell me what it means and I can get on with things.” How sad. These people are great fodder for the “self-serving dogmatists” because then their adgenda is met & more people are led away from truth.
posted February 20, 2009 at 7:27 pm
The debate is what we all do to discover the truth. Thank you for more “food for thought”, on this Shabbot.
posted February 21, 2009 at 2:53 am
I wish I could have enjoyed study as much as sex,
I might have graduated from every school I ever attended, with honors and degrees. Sadly study was just not as attractive and pleasurable. It seemed more like punishment, lacking any interest to me I avoided it. Defying those who sought to force me to study against my will, like a victim of unwanted sex, I fought off my “rapists”, teachers, parents,clergy and all inspite of their threats, physical and mental abuses, detainments, and denial of freedom. They called me “Belligerent”, but admitted that I am above average of intelligence in all except mechanical skills. Too bad they were not smart enough to make study as appealing as sex, they might have won me over.
posted February 21, 2009 at 3:46 pm
There is a lot of masturbation in the world, and only the smallest part of it has anything to do with genitalia. Anything we do simply because we can, because we perhaps feel a bit compelled, and that produces pleasure for us is, in the expansive sense, masturbation. Do you have a hobby? Masturbation. Do you watch television or go to the movies? Well, not quite masturbation since you just lean back and enjoy it… Do you clean the house compulsively? Masturbation. Correct other people’s grammar or spelling or style when you are not in any sense of the word their teacher but merely get pleasure from knowing you know better than them? Masturbation. Read books regardless whether they further your economic, social, or spiritual life? Masturbation.
And that’s not a bad thing. Many a marriage has been saved from ruin by one or both of the partners masturbating, whether literally or figuratively, rather than giving in to real temptations to “stray,” to speak euphemistically.
I would disagree, however, that solitary study falls under the rubric Masturbation merely because it is done alone. Judaism has the beautiful yeshiva model of studying together with a partner. I celebrate this method of study and wish I could have experienced it. Law schools have typically encouraged study not in pairs but in groups. I think I would have a hard time staying focused with constant input from so many living sources, though my oldest daughter and son-in-law thrived in that environment. I’m sure there are many different models for study and learning than I am not familiar with.
But much of “the West” has had a more monastic model for study, with long hours in silence with texts followed, perhaps, by producing another text in silence in response. Discussion in this model comes after the silent, single work is done, perhaps even primarily as an informative interlude before one returns to the silence to complete one’s work.
Christendom from the beginning has had this idea of a “great cloud of witnesses” that Rev. Warren alluded to in his inaugural invocation, referring in the Greek testament to those dead who are presented as having seen with their own eyes the things later writers passed down to their readers but had not seen themselves. Beyond its initial scriptural context, and alongside its purely mystical interpretation, this concept is the philosophical under layer for all study in societies with a “Western,” Christian-influenced culture.
As you said, Rabbi Brad, there is no such thing as reading alone. We are always in conversation with our teachers both dead and living. We are always learning from our peers, whether or not they ever speak to our face.
It is entirely proper and good for you to celebrate specifically Jewish traditions of learning and to offer them to the rest of the world as another model to enrich the experience of study. However, to set these two models against each other as one masturbatory the other copulatory – and copulatory specifically within a sustaining relationship – does not properly value or even accurately compare these different approaches to seeking and achieving the knowledge that both models value so highly.
So please teach me ways to study that incorporate the best elements of what you celebrate without the requirement that I completely retool and forget everything I’ve previously learned. Telling me that I’m masturbating but that you’re having great sex is not helpful.
Peace,
Pavvel