NEW YORK, NY — Thousands of people from almost 300 Jewish communities around the world joined together for a giant Torah class taught by Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz, a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid whom Time magazine once referred to as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”
Thousands Unite for Worldwide Torah Class
NEW YORK, NY — Thousands of people from almost 300 Jewish communities around the world joined together for a giant Torah class taught by Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz, a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid whom Time magazine once referred to as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”
Organized by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, a Chabad-Lubavitch initiative that seeks to revolutionize the Jewish adult educational experience, the Jan. 25 lecture – which focused on the power of Torah study as the penultimate expression of the Jewish people’s unity with G-d – was one of four to be presented in such a format this year.
The New York-based initiative seized on the idea of a worldwide live hookup in honor of hakhel, a once-in-seven-years gathering of the Jewish people that has its roots in the days of the Holy Temple. In his teachings on the subject, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, stressed that in modern times, hakhel can be observed by each and every person infusing their communities with a reinvigorated commitment to G-d and His Torah.
Among the thousands of people who participated in the live class broadcast via the Internet, Cindy Sanders, a music teacher at Da Vinci Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., said that the Torah class really spoke to her.
“When you learn Torah, the act of learning is an act of worship in and of itself, and brings you closer to G-d, just like in a parent-child relationship,” she said, paraphrasing some of the rabbi’s talk. “A meaningful bond is created between two people who are doing something together, in this case between man and G-d.
how?
How does one sign up?