Aharon Razel: "It’s a Living Text, Not Something Ancient"

"And so the Rabbi once told me, closing the door behind him, you entered the Beit Midrash, you found refuge in the battlefield. Sit before the Gemara, it will be your shield in times of trouble. Turn it over and over, day and night meditate on it, for there is no wisdom or power apart from it." (Aharon Razel, "Ten Men")

The 13th cycle of the daily daf began just over a month ago, and it seems many are joining the study — whether in pairs or alone — through elucidated Talmuds like "Schottenstein" or "V'shinantam," whether through online study or in-person learning. Singer Aharon Razel also embarked on the cycle and simultaneously released two songs — "I Set My Seat (in the Beit Midrash)" and "Ten Men", which speak about the study of Torah in a wholesome, loving, and strengthening tone.

The first time Razel encountered the Gemara's page was around age 10, in the school he attended. Later, his music teacher, Prof. Andre Hajdu, told him that he returned to religious observance because of the Gemara, after the study opened worlds for him that he didn't know before. After years, he began studying in his brother Rabbi Yehuda Razel’s daily daf class at Beit Yitzchak Synagogue in Nachlaot. Concurrently, Razel began integrating study and prayer into various songs he composed, like "Hagiga," "Mincha" and "The Cream and the Biscuit." "The uniqueness of the Jewish people is embedded in the Gemara. The special dialectic it contains is one of the secrets of the Jewish people, making you an active partner in creating the oral Torah, because everyone can innovate it," he explains.

What exactly in the Gemara causes the development of an inner world?

"I'll give an example: if a person's inner world is not developed enough, he needs many external stimuli, like TV channels. Then he gets bored and moves to other channels and so on. But someone who does not channel surf and looks at the same page for three hours understands that the real issue is developing the inner world and not the external stimuli. Otherwise, it doesn't really fulfill. Therefore, precisely the scrutiny of a Gemara page makes you more sensitive to the world. A Gemara page actually develops sensitivity to the world."

How do you make topics like the ox goring the cow interesting, even though they seemingly aren't relevant to our everyday life?

"You need to understand that the Gemara doesn’t want you to just read about a cow and an egg, but to try to see if you have something to say about it, if you understand what they want to convey. Then it becomes an intellectual, emotional, and faithful challenge. How much do you care about the Torah, how much do you sacrifice for it. That’s why in yeshivas there’s only Gemara study, because here you confront the logical flow of the text and try to understand it, where it's unclear, where you can challenge, and where you can connect. And it is a delight."

To such an extent?

"Yes. This is the oral Torah. Meaning, when you come to study — you are an active participant in writing the Gemara. Kind of like Wikipedia, with a great distinction. The oral Torah says that all of Israel can innovate in it. In studying, I understand that Rashi might have already said the same thing before me, but in a certain way, creative thinking is the required recipe. You need to ask a question that hasn’t been asked before, find a difficulty not addressed,

find something unique for you. It’s a living text, not something ancient. Perhaps you are not as great as Abaye and Rava, but you continue what they are doing."