News from Middle Tennessee's Jewish Community |
Thursday, May 21, 2026
By Michael Whitney, Barbara Moss, and Harry Perret
Imagine that the Shtetl of Europe has been frozen in time, transported to New York, and then unfrozen. Imagine walking down the main street and seeing the Judaica shops, hearing the sounds of yeshiva students studying Talmud, smelling the aromas of the freshly baked Challah wafting from the local kosher bakeries, while seeing sings in Hebrew and Yiddush and shuls on every corner, while the skyscrapers of Manhattan rise in the distance.
Wow, who would have ever imagined this, we are just about to mark the second Yahrzeit of Covid19. (Unfortunately, it is still very much here... but you know what I mean). So, here's my eulogy, two years later.
Writers of the Lost Ark is made up of Temple members who love to write poems, prose, songs and stories. The group meets once a month to discuss works in progress and get feedback, creative encouragement and new ideas to write about. Members also share things online during the month and are very interactive with each other between meetings. And yes, Writers of the Lost Ark is a play on “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” only this is The Temple’s version!
In the Talmud, the basic unit of meaningful learning is the chevrutah, or studying with a partner. All throughout the classic Jewish sources we see Rabbis coming together to discuss different topics. The most famous of these rabbinic pairs was the one put together by Hillel and Shammai. They were so important and influential that two different schools were created after them. For years, the students attending those schools continued to disagree with one another. It is out of their many disagreements that we got some of the fundamental contours of Jewish law.
