Film: Rabbi Teacher (Israel)

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00:00:00: SOUND UP; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:43: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: I’ve met few people with a soul like Rabbi Engelman. More than just a rabbi, he’s an accomplished musician, and eternal student. Rabbi Engelman guided me through the old district of Jerusalem. Few people realize that Judaism is about lifetime learning.; RABBI: You know how the Torah starts.; CHARLIE: How?; RABBI: Garden of Eden. Right?; CHARLIE: Yeah.; RABBI: Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden. The whole purpose of any religion is getting back to the Garden of Eden. And there’s many signposts, but people often start worshiping the signposts, rather than worshiping, trying to get back home, you know, because teshuva, repentance, is getting home. It's getting wherever home is for you. You know, real home. Jacques Derrida, a famous, one of the most famous philosophers, passed away two years ago, three years ago. Jewish, Algerian originally—he has a wonderful definition of what’s Jewish. A Jew is someone who asks what it means to be Jewish.; CHARLIE: So they’re searchers. They’re wanderers.; RABBI: Yeah.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:01:55: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: An individual devoted to studying the Talmud will spend his entire life studying at yeshivas. You never graduate from this class.; CAPTION: A yeshiva is a school for study of the Torah and other Jewish religious texts.; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Rabbi Engelman walked me through the school. It is a memory I will never forget.
00:02:12: CHARLIE: So are they studying the same Talmud, but is it different now?; CAPTION: The Talmud is a rabbinic record of Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history.; RABBI: Yes, they’re studying the same Talmud. Some of them will be studying the [Hebrew word], the books of Jewish theology.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: After several intellectual discussions with these superminds, Rabbi Engelman allowed me to open one of his congregation’s Torahs.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; RABBI: There it is, you pull it.; CAPTION: The cupboard in which the Torah is stored is called the Aron Kodesh, or “Holy Ark.”; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE: So I’m essentially taking out what is believed to be the direct words from God to Moses right now. That’s the baby, yeah.; RABBI: Yes. Take your time.; CHARLIE: It's the first time I’ve ever held the Torah.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:03:18: RABBI: And you can undo it. Come on, don’t be nervous.; CHARLIE: Okay.; RABBI: Okay. Just…; CHARLIE: I was going to ask you—what have I opened up to?; RABBI: You’re just opened to the Ten Commandments. [CANTOR CHANTS THE SCRIPTURE]
00:03:56: CHARLIE: So This is the essence of humanity. In a way. I mean, this is the beginning. The Ten Commandments.; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: As we walked out of the yeshiva, I asked Rabbi Engelman if he believed in God. Humbly, he turned to me and said, “The question is, does God believe in me?”; END OF FILM

Now Viewing: Rabbi Teacher

What does it mean to be Jewish? Rabbi Engelman, Director of the Yakar Study Centre in Jerusalem, agrees with philosopher Jacques Derrida that to be Jewish is to always seek that meaning. He brings Charles Annenberg Weingarten to a yeshiva to meet these "eternal students" as they study the Talmud — the book of Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history — and open a traditional scroll of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.