Fun Reading

Yesterday I had some homework to do for my Jewish class, and since I tend to push homework off till the last minute, I was sitting in the class before it doing my Jewish Homework. I had a תנ״ך that was divided in 3 sections, Torah, נבאים, and כתובים. For the Homework I needed to compare 2 passages, one from Torah and one from נבאים, so I had both on my desk.

Then a Jewish guy sitting next to me, sees the ספרים on my desk, so he asks me what it’s for. I showed him the syllabus, saying that it’s a upper core I’m taking. He then decided to take the חמישה חומשי תורה from my desk and starts reading it. He starts off with the beginning, he then asks me what וישלט means. I tell him it means to rule or a ruler, he then shows me the English translation says it’s a viceroy, so I tell him that it’s another name for a ruler. He then flips through to creation, he asks me what luminaries mean. I answer that it means the stars and moon in the sky. He asked me what וישרצו means, I didn’t have a good word to translate it too, I said it means to swarm, like many bugs swarming around.

After having some fun reading the חמישה חומשי תורה he then notices the נביא on my desk, so he takes that and starts going through that too. Knowing which High School he went to, I knew it was a modern one, but I was surprised that he didn’t know some stuff which I remember learning in elementary school and thinking that everyone knew. So it woke me up that it could be that people aren’t as familiar with the Torah as I would expect them to be.

He flips through some more and continues reading. Meanwhile the whole time I thought he was just going to look at it for a second, I didn’t realize he was going to be reading it the whole class. After all, I was waiting to get it back so I can finish doing my Homework. I finished one homework and didn’t end up getting to do my second homework that class. But it felt good knowing that someone was able to keep the mitzvah of learning Torah through me.