The Torah on One Foot

In a famous Talmudic story, a man asks Shammai and Hillel to convert him, but with one condition:

^{בבלי שבת לא. [כ"י פריידברג]} מעשה בגוי אחד שבא לפני שמאי. אמר לו: "גיירני על מנת שתלמדני כל התורה כולה כשאני עומד על רגלי אחד."

^{b. Shabbat 31a [Friedberg MS]} It happened that a certain gentile came before Shammai. He said to him: “Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole entire Torah when I am standing on one foot.” [Hebrew regel, likely a word play, Latin regula means “rule,” so all the Torah in one short rule].^[1]

דחפו באמת הבניין שבידו.

[Shammai] pushed him out with the builder’s cubit (Latin: regula, another word play) that he held in his hand.

בא לפני הילל, גייריה. אמר ליה: "כל התורה כולה 'דעלך דאת סני לחברך לא תעביד.' ואידך פירושא הוא. זיל גמר."

[The gentile] went to Hillel and he converted him. [Hillel] said to him: “The whole entire Torah is ‘what is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellow.’ The rest is commentary. Go and learn.”

We asked scholars: How would you describe the Torah’s core teaching(s), mission, or purpose in its original context or as it’s been received in the past or present?

The Torah, a Medium of Engagement with Life

A Springboard—I am a big fan of Hillel’s summary, so asking for an alternate answer is very difficult. I will offer this: Life is hard, and it is not always clear what the right thing to do is. Here are some stories and ideas. Discuss amongst yourselves. (FYI, I practiced on one foot.) — Tammi Schneider

Invites Questions—The Torah may not provide all the answers nor be the literal word of God, but as the sacred literature of our people its holiness is manifest in the profound questions it invites us to ask about our lives, our sense of morality, and our relationship with that which we hold as Divine in our lives. — Ron Stern

A Living System—The key to the Torah lies in its reception among the Jewish people. It is a dynamic, living system that informs and regulates both individual lives and the collective fabric of Jewish society. The Torah is predicated on its ever-evolving interpretation and implementation by those who have adopted it as their guide. It manifests in the rituals performed, the stories told, the moral teachings imparted, and the life choices made. It exists in the vibrant discourse and debate over its meaning and practical application. The Torah lives through a living people. — Yonatan Adler

An Anthology—The Torah has no core teaching. It is an anthology, often containing one statement and its very opposite. That is why it has survived: each person may accentuate a particular set of its teachings or stories. The Jewish first-century Gospel of Matthew recognizes that the Torah cannot be reduced to a single principle when both love of God (Deut. 6:5) and love of neighbor (Lev. 19:18) are declared the “greatest” commandments (Matthew 22:34-40; see Mark 12:28-34 and Luke 10:25-28). We must celebrate the Torah’s diversity, never condensing it to one pithy saying, and should use its diversity as a model for accepting both/and and rejecting either/or perspectives. — Marc Brettler

To Each Their Own Torah—Torah, literally: “learning,” “instruction,”, “rule,” means many things to many people. As a body of literature, it means the Pentateuch. Expanded: the Tanakh – Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim. (Apocrypha? Why not?) Also “Oral Torah,” first as an idea, then as a means of handing down tradition, finally as an “expanded universe” of a huge body of literature. But Torah is also Torah-inspired behavior (see Hillel), a Torah-inspired way of life, Torah-inspired lyrics, literature and music. Studying Torah, as an exercise in faith and/or in intellect. Knowing the Land of the Bible. To each her or his own Torah – each of which has a leg to stand on. — Yigal Levin

The Light Behind the Spectrum—Millions of Jews read the Torah on one foot. Rashi (ad loc.) couldn’t bear the anthropological pivot of Zen-master Hillel’s “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.” He insisted God remain central, interpreting “your fellow” as the Divine: “Don’t forsake your Friend and your father’s Friend.” Yet Ben Bag Bag was right (m. Avot 5:22): “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it.” Torah is white light—its meaning refracted through the prism of interpretation. Each sees a different color, each reads “according to their strength.” Blessed is the one who glimpses the light behind the spectrum. — Shraga Bar-On

Breathe Our Life into Torah—Torah is cold water that slakes thirst, takes the breath away upon first plunge: “A garden fountain, well of living waters, streams flowing from Levanon” (Song 4:15). I teach my students, as they swim, to trust their own buoyancy with the text. When we dive deep—in contextual waters, with the BDB dictionary or concordance—eventually we return to the present to breathe new life into text. (We have no gills, but, like a water mammal, must surface for air.) For the Torah is not in the heavens or beyond the sea… “But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do” (Deut 30:14). — Rachel Adelman

New as Old and Old as New—"Return us to You, O Eternal, and we shall return; renew our days as of old (kedem)." This is the penultimate verse in the Book of Lamentations, but in synagogue life, it is repeated after the final verse, so that the book ends on a positive note. After describing the horrors of destruction comes a request to return, to renew and be renewed as of old. The Sages are divided on the question of which period is referred to in this verse, and they offer several suggestions (Lamentations Rabbah 5:21). But it seems that the verse itself doesn't refer to a specific period but rather to an eternal and intense yearning for youth, for clear and young thinking. This specific kind of youth is one of renewal through returning to an ancient well (beʾer kedem) of sweet waters.

The word "kedem" (as of old) means an ancient period, but it also contains within it the idea of progress (hitkadmut). Both of these concepts are encapsulated in the word as referring to the east (as per the line in Hatikvah, וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח קָדִימָה עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה "And to the eastern quarters eastward, an eye gazing toward Zion"), that is, the Land of Israel not necessarily as a geographic location or political entity but as an intention, a direction, and a commitment to a life of meaning, a life of זִקְנָה וְשַׁחֲרוּת, שֵׂיבָה וְשַׁחֲרוּת "old age and youth, gray hair and dawn."^[2] A life in which הַיָּשָׁן יִתְחַדֵּשׁ וְהֶחָדָשׁ יִתְקַדֵּשׁ "the old will be renewed, and the new will be sanctified" (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook).^[3] — Dalia Marx

Inculcate Your Children with Torah—Israelite Samaritans treat the Torah of Moses with sacred reverence. From the moment a baby boy or girl is born, parents begin to familiarize them with the words of the Torah, teaching them to memorize the Shema Yisrael (Deut 6:4ff.) and the opening of the Song of Ha’azinu (Deut 32):

^{דברים לב:ג[נה"ש]} כי בשם י־הוה אקרא והבו גדל לאלהינו׃ ^לב:ד הצור תמים פעלו כי כל דרכיו משפט אל אמונה ואין עול צדיק וישר הוא׃

^{Deut 32:3 [SP]} For in the name YHWH I proclaim; and give glory to our God!^32:4 The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect, Yea, all God’s ways are just;a faithful God, never false, true and upright indeed.

They conclude with the affirmation:

ברוך אלהינו לעולם וברוך שמו לעולם

Blessed is our God forever, and blessed is His name forever.

Children begin reading the Torah at the age of five—letter by letter in the ancient Hebrew script, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph—until they have read the entire Torah. The more advanced learners finish by age six and others by age seven. Boys and girls join the family’s cycle of Torah reading by reading the weekly portion after Sabbath morning prayers, at six in the morning. Thus do Samaritan children learn the Torah of Moses “on one foot.” — Binyamim Tsedaka

Ethics & Empathy

Empathy Is a Start—Slamming Shammai got it right embracing the whole Torah, rejecting Reductionism. We have not done well with “Core” exponents: Tikkun Olam creaks along; “Moshiach Now” is “Apocalypse Now”; Kedusha (Holiness) leads to isolation and poverty; Torah u’Mada (Torah and science) is daf yomi^[4] in a high tech cubicle; and Ben Gurion’s pitch of Israel - a “Light unto the Nations” - well, how's that working for you? Humble Hillel cleverly posits a negative command based on subjectivity - universalizing it via empathy to all. Its seeming minimal directive explains a lot of the Torah. This is doable, and when practiced, could change everything. Learn that. — Daniel Landes

Listening to Our Limits—What is hateful to others, do not do. By which I mean: Do not make what is hateful to you your starting point. You are not the measure of all things. You were not there in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth—but that does not mean that you have no leg to stand on. You do stand, but on one leg only. The other leg is everything else, everything that limits you, and constitutes you as limited. Listen to those limits, be guided by them: other people, the voices of the past, illness, death, the world. — Tzvi Novick

You Must Not Remain Indifferent, lo tukhal le-hit‘alem (Deut 22:3)—These staccato words appear in the middle of a paragraph which speaks of our obligation to restore lost items to our fellow, including clothing and livestock, even if it is an inconvenience to ourselves. If you were looking for a three-word summation of the entire Torah, that would be it. We need not be saints, but that charge of Torah remains a goad that will not let us hide (another way to translate the verse: you may not hide). Rashi, in his typical way, comments that we may not hide our eyes as though we didn't see the others' suffering. These powerful, uncompromising, stern words call us to be who we are supposed to be. Whether tired or not, worn down or not, we cannot hide. We must not remain indifferent. — Bradley Shavit Artson

Humanity in God’s Image—We love short pithy sayings. The Bible is full of them and so is the Talmud. Most notably Hillel. But all such reductionisms leave out as much as they contain. Rabbi Akiva quotes Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Without telling us who counts as a neighbor” (Bereishit Rabba 24:7).^[5] But Ben Azai has it right when he says the most important general principle should apply to all humanity. “This is the story of humanity, God created us all in God's image.” It is up to try to for everyone, not just whoever we describe as our neighbors. — Jeremy Rosen

Humanity Reflects God's Oneness— Some changes take time, and it doesn’t work to rush them. Other changes come upon a person while “standing on one foot” or indeed כהרף עין “in the blink of an eye.”

In ancient paganism, divinities were often national or tribal; hence, groups were cleft apart, even theologically, and could not identify with each other, let alone love each other.

But when Hillel declares his paraphrase of "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18) to be the Torah's essence, he reminds us of the connectedness of all humanity; a connectedness that is the corollary of our core belief in a single Creator. And despite divisions and differences between individuals and groups - which are real and important in themselves – Hillel, in a flash, imparts the truth that all humans are essentially one big family inasmuch as they are all made by the One בורא עולם “Creator of the world.”

May we learn to internalize this teaching. — Isaac S. D. Sassoon

Tikkun Olam and Tzelem Elohim—The Torah Laws and way of life should create a perfect society which will be admired by the nations of the world, thereby sanctifying God's name. The wisdom and the logic are supposed to be readily recognizable to the gentile mind. How are we doing? Many more flock to Varanasi than Jerusalem or Bnei Brak.

The Zohar says that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah. Each of us is a letter in the Torah. Are we refined and holy enough to be instruments of God's revelation? All together is the only way. — Herzl Hefter

Refining Moral Character—Early Jews, from the Second Temple period on, understood that God chose Abram as a response to Abram choosing God. The Torah, however, is more interested in God’s choice, and God’s desire for connection. The task of Israel is to respond to God’s call, and in so doing, to become worthy of God’s chosenness. The clearest source for discerning the raison d’être of the Jewish people can be discovered when considering why the first Jew was chosen for the covenant. Avraham was selected as the first Jew because of his moral commitment to follow the Divine path (Gen 18:19) “la‘asot tzedakah umishpat,” to not only do what was right and just but to teach his children to do so. On one foot, the Torah is about cultivating the spiritual tools and refining the moral character traits to ensure that one brings more light than darkness, more healing than suffering, and more repairing than destroying. — Shmuly Yanklowitz

Good Decision Making—A central theme in the Torah is the struggle between good decision-making and power. This struggle is reflected in the name Yisra’el (Israel), which translates as “struggle with power/God.” The Torah introduced individual decision-making, with an eye toward the community and constructive outcomes. Over millennia, through biblical writings and redactions, a corpus of instructions for behavior was compiled, forming a theocracy governed by teachings, or law. This body of law directed the behavior of its people, including their king and other community members. — Philip Kahn

Save the Hostages—The regula is simple: if your neighbors are suffering in the hell of the Gaza tunnels, liberate them immediately, just as you would have wanted them to do for you -- and all the rest is commentary. — Warren Zev Harvey

Family First—We are our brothers’ keepers. We must save our captive nephews and sisters; we may not play favorites among our children. We may not go to war against our cousins. We must take care of our poor and needy and not mistreat those who live among us. We are responsible for creating an ethical society and eventually leading the world into a new age of wisdom and peace. So family first, but not family only. — Zev Farber

Are We Living Up to It?

Kindness to Strangers—Challenged to boil the Torah down to one message, I can think of at least three: all human beings—all of us—are created in the image of the Deity; the way to serve God, the purpose of the cult, is to create an environment that is fit for God; and the famous injunction “Love for your neighbor what you love for yourself” (Lev. 19:18). But further down in the same passage (vv. 33-34) we encounter a similar, no less hallowed, injunction: “When a stranger lives among you in your land, you must not oppress him! Like one of your native-born must the stranger living among you be! You must love for him what you love for yourself—for you have been strangers in the land of Egypt!” The mitzvah of treating the stranger like one of your own is made explicit far more than any other norm in the Torah—at least 36 times. This is what God demands of us. — Ed Greenstein

“Justice, Justice you shall pursue” (Deut 16:20)—Fewer Torah phrases are more famous. How many, however, are familiar with the poignant verses of Meir Ariel the exceptionally talented Israeli lyricist, composer and performer (1942-1999)? Meir's haunting words continue to strike contemporary chords, demonstrating the everlasting relevance of the divine command. I reproduce here only the two first stanzas from the blog "one Israeli song a week":

רודף צדק ג'ימי ודין רודף שלום
נפגשים להם בבאר האדום
השלום והצדק מתחבאים באפלולית
רובצים להם אין הגה בתוך שלולית
שלולית של שיכר באפלולית של דם
או אפלולית שיכר בשלולית של דם
רודף צדק ג'ימי מנגן מפוחית
ודין רודף שלום מקיש על פחית
והם שרים איש את שלו

Pursuer of justice Jimmy and Dean pursuer of peace
Meet at the red pit
Peace and justice are hiding in the darkness
Lying silently in a puddle
A puddle of intoxication in the darkness of blood
Or a dark intoxication in a puddle of blood
Pursuer of justice Jimmy plays the harmonica
And Dean pursuer of peace taps on a can
And each sings his own song

צדק צדק תרדוף
בקש שלום ורדפהו
בקש שלום ורדפהו
צדק צדק תרדוף

Justice justice you shall pursue
Ask for peace and pursue i
Ask for peace and pursue it
Justice justice you shall pursue...

— Hagith Sivan

Notwithstanding the Feminist Critique—Standing Again at Sinai,^[6] on one foot no less, very tired from the balancing act, which in my rush to get a good seat to see and hear God, I tripped on the mechitza/barrier being built to separate us from our menfolk. Was it God or Moses who said “don’t go near a woman?” (Exodus 19:15) and caused the mad rush to avoid us? So here I am, hineni, with crutch in hand, seeking a place on the other side, with my right foot going numb, totally exhausted, just so that I can hear God’s voice. Later, I will protest that “separate is not equal.” No time to elaborate now, a spot is opening up, and I will hobble over to grab it. — Naomi Graetz

Fixity and Freedom—The Talmud (b. Eruvin 54a) states about God’s words engraved on the tablets (Exod 32:16): “Do not read “engraved” (חָרוּת) but “freedom” (חֵרוּת).” The Torah is all about the tension between fixity and freedom, how within a very constrained system of rules the mind can wander free among the infinite paths of interpretation. It is a vision of political freedom, in which Egypt stands for every system of domination, and an attempt to imagine a society whose only bonds are those of hesed. Accordingly, the Torah is a failure, since the ideal world never happens, but that doesn’t absolve us from trying. — Francis Landy

History and Peoplehood

Israel’s Prehistory—The purpose of what we call “the Torah” (the Five Books of Moses) is to present the history of the Israelites/Jews before they became a proper nation in their own land. This includes the constitutional instructions (torot -- torahs) that God and Moses gave them in the wilderness, but it is not limited to these instructions. The account also includes, for example, a list of kings of Edom, where there is no “message” beyond the relaying of facts. Therefore, a good subtitle for the Torah would be Prolegomena to the History of Israel, the title of Julius Wellhausen's famous book. — Raanan Eichler

Backstory for Israel’s Religious Norms—All four of the Torah documents provide – each in its own way – an explanation for the present: the pre-exilic period when Israel was settled in its own territory. They do so by means of a foundational account of the distant past, from the patriarchs to the Exodus, through the wilderness journey and until the death of Moses. The purpose of this pre-history is to present religious and ethical norms, which are enumerated at length, as commands of God, and to maintain that adherence to them is an obligation imposed by past events on future generations, thus establishing the categorical imperative of compliance. The canonical Torah essentially renews the same claim, extending it to a later, post-exilic present. — Baruch J. Schwartz

Israel in their Land—The Torah led the entire nation of Israel to the land of the forefathers, the Land of Israel. Even today, the Torah must rise up, emerge from the teachings of the exile, and become the Torah of the Land of Israel — for a free and independent people in the Land of Israel,in the state that gathers in the exiles, in the spirit of the dream of Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz of Safed (16^th c.) in his “Lecha Dodi” hymn:

מִקְדָּשׁ מֶלֶךְ עִיר מְלוּכָה קוּמִי צְאִי מִתּוֹךְ הַהֲפֵכָה, רַב לָךְ שֶׁבֶת בְּעֵמֶק הַבָּכָא ... הִתְנַעֲרִי ... הִתְעוֹרְרִי הִתְעוֹרְרִי...

Sanctuary of the King, royal city, arise! Go out from the midst of the upheaval. Too long have you dwelled in the valley of tears… Shake yourself off… Awaken, awaken…

And then:

וְהָיוּ לִמְשִׁסָּה שֹׁסָיִךְ…

Those who plundered you will be plundered…

For our tormentors will despair if they see millions of Jews ascending to our land, and perhaps they will even understand that this is the true will of the one and only God — Hashem, God of Israel and giver of the Torah. Then true peace will come, through Hashem’s grace and might. — Yoel Bin Nun

YHWH Redeemed Israel from Egypt to Be their God—The Torah is intended to teach and does teach that the people Israel (aka the Jewish people) were rescued from slavery in Egypt by YHWH himself acting through Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (see esp. Mic. 6:4), and in response the people Israel entered into a covenanted relationship with YHWH. According to that covenant, the people Israel obligated themselves to follow YHWH’s laws and prescriptions and in return, YHWH agreed to be their god, to bring them into the promised land, the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, and (as long as they obey YHWH) to guard and protect them there. — Liz Fried

God’s Relationship to Israel

Become Worthy of Being Chosen—The Torah traces the story of God’s ongoing desire for an intimate relationship with the family of Abraham. Unlike other gods of the ancient world, who were often seen as indifferent to humanity and in need of appeasement, Abraham’s God—the God of Israel—seeks closeness with the beings God created. This God offers the covenantal people new opportunities to respond to the divine call and to mature into accountable partners. The Torah’s core message is that God lovingly desires Israel, and that Israel’s task is to respond to the divine call by becoming worthy of their chosenness. They can do so by showing loyalty to God and by establishing a just society which reflects God’s infinite love. — Malka Simkovich

Be Holy—“You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2. — Marvin A. Sweeney

Kedoshim tihiyu “Be Holy!” Holiness is a challenge, not an endowment. It is up to us, not God, to bring holiness into the world. — Menachem Kellner

A Haiku
One transcendent God,
Creator, commander, judge,
Bound to a people.
— Shalom E. Holtz

Reward and Punishment—Hillel presents the positive aspect of Judaism: be good to your fellow, and you will be rewarded. He did not elaborate what if not. That is the flip side of Judaism’s message, which we find in Psalm 137, when between weeping and crying, the Jews in the Babylonian Exile asked themselves: “What went wrong?” In much of the Bible, the answer the exiled Jews gave was: “We sinned and were punished.” Indeed, the Bible, from Genesis to Chronicles was redacted with an emphasis on reward and punishment. — Rami Arav

God Spoke—It is told^[7] that Rabbi Zusya never heard the entirety of the sermons of his rebbe, the Maggid of Mezeritch, for whenever his teacher quoted a verse from the Torah that contained the words, “God spoke,” Rav Zusya was overcome with ecstasy and had to be taken out of the study hall screaming and crying aloud, 'וידבר ה' וידבר ה “God spoke! God spoke!” These two words occur so frequently that we do not pay them heed. But Rav Zusya understood that they contain the essence of Torah: that God spoke, and we have the record of what was heard. — Eric Grossman

God of History—The purpose of the Torah is to manifest God's "being" in our world, in various shades. It begins with a view of humans and their place in creation, as bearers of God's image; continues with universal moral demands and takes a deep look at the many failures in this area; illuminates the special status and mission of the Israelite nation, and its special place in the land of Canaan which becomes the land of Israel; further along the way it reveals to us God's commandments and His demands. It emphasizes that God is not only the creator of the world, but also the God of history, and that reality operates according to spiritual principles in addition to the laws of nature and society. At its core, it is therefore the path of revelatory contact that allows us to connect to what is beyond the visible reality that we see with our eyes. — Yuval Cherlow

God Cares—The message of the Torah seems manifestly clear—
The distant God is also miraculously near,
Commands one chosen nation to model for the class,
And if they do it faithfully, will pull them from morass;
Cares for human conduct, and for Divine renown
That is nutshell Torah, now put your foot back down.
— David Wolpe

God and Israel, A Love Story—“For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies (שֶׁאֵין כָּל הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ כְדַאי כַּיּוֹם שֶׁנִּתַּן בּוֹ שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁכָּל הַכְּתוּבִים קֹדֶשׁ, וְשִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים)!” So said Rabbi Akiva in m. Yad. 3:5, in his famous defense of the Song’s sanctity. As Saul Lieberman noted, Akiva’s language puts the Song on par with the Torah, as a text that was “given (נתן).”^[8]

Despite—or, rather, because of—its evocative eroticism and vivid yet unworldly depictions of fierce, convention-defying love, a rich tradition emerged in Judaism that understands the Song as encapsulating the essence of the Torah, in its most capacious sense.^[9] No other work speaks so powerfully and directly to the relationship between God and Israel (the mutuality and interdependence of covenant) and the theological importance of desire, a condition which depends on distance (exile, diaspora) to fuel passionate yearning. — Laura Lieber

“One God” Then, “Do Good” Now—Being asked to summarize the Torah’s core meaning leads me once again to a plea Krister Stendahl made a generation ago: We need to distinguish between the question: What does the Bible mean? And what did the Bible mean?^[10] Thus, if I were asked about what the Torah’s core teaching was — in the Iron Age, when it was first proclaimed — I would likely answer שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל ה’ אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ ה’ אֶחָֽד, for ultimately one could well argue that the entirety of the 24 Books is subsumed under the effort to bring Israel to the exclusive worship of the One God of Israel and to live according to the Covenant cut with that God. As I understand this today, however, when this truth was long ago grasped, I would respond with the words of the Psalmist (34:15), ס֣וּר מֵ֭רָע וַעֲשֵׂה־ט֑וֹב, “Turn from evil and do good.” The rest is commentary. — Robbie Harris

Ultimately, We Need Both Feet

Stand on Both Feet—From a purely physical perspective there is something impressive about the ability to study or even write while standing on only one foot. Both Horace and Shammai see it differently. The Roman poet uses the phrase stans pede in uno (Horace, Satires 1.4.10) in his invective against Lucilius, his satirical predecessor. In Horace’s view, Lucilius wrote too much too quickly, “often two hundred verses per hour.” To Horace, here “standing on one foot” means to do something carelessly, or in a superficial way. In the Talmud the phrase is put into the mouth of a gentile who is approaching Shammai, a contemporary of Horace. When studying Torah (or anything else) it is probably commendable to follow Quintilian’s advice: omni pede standum est (Inst. Or. 12.9.18), one “needs to stand on both feet.” Studying deserves time. — René Bloch

The Need for Balance—“On one foot” – at my age!? No way! I need two to balance. One for “Read the Torah” and one for “Read the people, the real world out there.” Without both planted firmly on the ground you will surely fall. — Norman Solomon