MY PUBLISHER ADVISES ME THUS: “…[W]rite a blog post that you’ve published an in-depth Q&A interview … and invite your blog readers to comment on your blog and suggest additional questions they’d like to see answered in your interview (and then go back and answer those questions too!).”
This is that blog post. Do what thou wilt.
Please illuminate some of the connections between your Jewish practice and Torah study.
What a great question! The first thing that comes to mind is the old rabbinic chestnut, “Which is more important — study or practice?” The classic answer is that study is more important because it leads to practice. Torah provides examples of how an ethical, kind person should act (as well as how not to act!), but practice is where the sandal hits the footpath, so to speak — especially concerning our relationships with other people.
I hold by the idea of Torah as a collection of campfire didactics knit together to give us something to stand on (or sometimes, push off from), and that Judaism can be considered as the world’s oldest permanent floating book-club; it’s provided social cohesion for at least the past 3,000 years. Not bad, huh? (More of my heresies may be found here, here, and here.)
Thank you Neal