Only in Israel: MK Ruth Calderon’s Talmud Lesson in Knesset (15-Minute Inspirational Video)

Only in Israel: MK Ruth Calderon’s Talmud Lesson in Knesset (15-Minute Inspirational Video)

In the video below, Dr. Ruth Calderon, a newly-elected Knesset member from the secular Yesh Atid party, talks about the love of her life: the Babylonian Talmud. This speech brought tears to my eyes. I guess because the Knesset represents to me the sky-high walls that divide us Jews, and Calderon’s simple but powerful speech reminds me that it is possible to bring down those walls through love of our common spiritual heritage: the Torah. And I also loved when she prays at the end, “that I leave this house as I entered it: at peace with myself and with others.” I wonder if this is possible…I hope so! I think I’ll start praying for that too. Thanks so much to Nachlaot JewishMOM for sending this my way!

5 comments

  1. Thats all nice and beautiful, but torah, gemara, without messora is not “toraht chaim.” institutions where there studying gemara for the sake of its cultural values or for the intelectual challeges -its like using the gemara as a history book and fogetting the kedusha it posseses…

  2. (im reffering to what she was actualy saying in her speech…)

  3. Olala, what a Balagan.. She studies Torah on an intellectual level in university and feels she is contributing but the Haredi person in Yeshiva/Kollel who actually does live what he studies does not contribute..
    The Greeks goal was exactly that, to take the Torah as an intellectual book without practicing its mitzvot of Shabbat, Brit, Taharat Mishpacha etc. It’s the sad recipe for assimilation. Tears of mourning I would say.

  4. Thank you so much for posting this video! I was thrilled to hear these words spoken in the kneset. I very much believe in the power of shared study of the Jewish text and sharing the tradition by all strata of the Israeli/Jewish society in the aim of building better understanding among Jews and eventually stronger Jewish future. Hartman institute she mentiones at the end is an excellent institution that shows that this is possible. Taking the Jewish tradition seriously (without compromising the mitzvoth) can be combined with being opened tho social and intellectual challenges. Kol ha-kavod la!

    I am not sure what leads the two ladies in the previoust posts

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