Welcome and thank you for your interest in Mila Yomit. This journey has close to 400 participants world wide. Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may find it of value. All they need to do is send me their email for them to be added on.
Enclosed is the compilation of how much we have to date. We are at Breishit 1:13. The end of the third day. My suggestion is to read it from the beginning, a Mila a day. Since new ones are not sent out every day (I'm writing this as we go) and certainly not on Shabbat) you will soon catch up to the flow.
Themes and concepts are introduced early on and it will be helpful to meet them as the Torah introduces them. The first time something is mentioned is particularly significant. Also, it is helpful to peruse the new ones. Some things may be confusing without the prior explanations. The first posting explains the rationale and context for this activity as well as provides a personal biography for those who may not know me (the majority of people in the world). Each generation is invited to read the Torah with fresh eyes. Welcome to our collective reading.
Since inaugurating this list, I have been impressed and inspired by strong desire to know Torah that is so often expressed in these discussions. There is a reason that our sages teach that 'talmud torah keneged koolam-the study of Torah is equal to all the mitzvot'.Last spring the pnai-rabbinic list was discussing the challenge and the importance of Hebrew literacy. I've always thought learning enough Hebrew to learn Torah independently is not as difficult as some people may fear.
I saw many times people enter baal tshuva yeshivot with no Hebrew whatsoever and in a matter of a few months become able to negotiate Hebrew source texts. A Rabbi-friend of mine claims that the Torah itself only has about 1500 different words in its vocabulary base. The accuracy of this statement needs to be researched but the point is that the Torah's vocabulary is pretty basic. And many words repeat themselves.
At the beginning of the 1900's, in order to ensure literacy with the Talmud, our most challenging text, we began a practice called Daf Yomi - Daily Folio in which individuals or groups of people all over the world learn the same page of the Talmud. In seven years, at a page a day, the participants complete the entire Talmud. This is still widely practiced. (One celebration of their last siyum was in Madison Square Gardens).
In reflecting on our current challenge of Hebrew literacy, it occurred to me that this may be an appropriate time for Mila Yomi - The Daily Torah Word. Please allow me to explain.
We are invited to individually acquire the Torah by reading it and learning it for ourselves. Each generation is encouraged (actually is responsible) to learn the Torah's teachings for their unique time and circumstance. This can only be done by reading the Torah with fresh eyes, Word by word, even letter by letter.
If one was to learn a word of the Torah a day, six words a week (resting and reviewing on Shabbat), one would learn 312 words a year and in about five years know every word of the Torah. We are beginning this period of Breishit (just last week). The beginning of a new Torah reading cycle seems like a good time to begin such a Torah learning activity. If there is sufficient interest (10 people willing to receive and read Mila Yomi is sufficient for Torah study) I would be willing to go through the words of the Torah and facilitate a cyber-sharing and exploration. I would share the words of the Torah one by one, with basic explanation. It would be actually great if different people could present the word of the day, but I will start in order for this to at least begin.(There seems to be a theme here.)
If you feel that learning one Torah word a day would be of value to you, (and fit in well with our busy schedules) please email me back and I will be privileged to send you the Mila Yomi. At the end of this posting I will include a personal introduction to those of you who may be wondering who is writing these words.
For example and as a way of beginning this exploration, here is the first word: BREISHIT-In the beginning (MILA 1). The other words will probably (hopefully) be way shorter. Everything is in the first word. They say the Vilna Gaon spent the last number of years of his life just learning from the word Breishit (that's what they say, ...probably not completely true, even he might have been bored with just one word).
BeShalom
Bracha: With peace and blessings,
Itzchak
