Analyzing the Photograph

Look carefully at the photograph below. What do you see?

Answer the questions below the photograph.

Summer Camp, Tumwater, Washington, 2002

Image copyright Zion Ozeri and used with the permission of the photographer. You can see more of his amazing images here.

• What is your first impression when you look at the photograph?
• Describe the people in the photograph. What are they doing?
• If you were there, what sounds do you think you would be hearing?
• Why are they holding their little fingers in the air?
• What objects do you see in the photograph?
• Write three adjectives to describe the photograph.
• Why do you think the photographer, Zion Ozeri, took this photograph? What message do you think he was trying to convey?
• Write a caption for the photograph.

Lifting the Torah

During the Torah service, the Torah is lifted to allow everyone to see inside. According to Ashkenazi tradition, the Torah is lifted after it has been read. In Sephardi tradition, the Torah is lifted before it is read. In either case, the Torah is opened and lifted.

The verse below is said aloud by the congregation when the Torah is lifted. The congregation in the photograph is the campers at a summer camp in Washington State.

Read the text and answer the questions below.

• Why do you think the Torah is lifted?
• Why do you think it is important for people to see the words in the Torah?
• Why do you think the above verse is said when the Torah is lifted? What is the message?
• What do you do when the Torah is lifted? Do you do what the campers in the photograph are doing?
• What other rituals do you do to express your love for the Torah?

But I Wasn't There

The generation that left Egypt stood at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah. Read the text below which describes the event and answer the questions below.

• Who is speaking in the verses above? (To read the verses in the full context, click on the chapter and verse.)
• According to the verses, who is party to God's covenant? Which people are included?

The medieval commentator, Ibn Ezra, explains the words "not with you alone" in the following comment.

What problem does the text raise? What might a person who wasn't standing at Mt. Sinai say about this?

​​​​​​​Feminist Critique

As we have discussed, (some) feminist interpreters of the Torah took particular exception to the description of the original Revelation and its supposed audience being only the men of בנ"י and not the women (Shmot 19:15 / שמות יט:טו). Here is one poetic attempt to address this challenge, by Merle Feld. Read the poem and answer the questions below.

• What is the main difference between the narrator and her brother?
• Why is that significant to us, reading about Revelation thousands of years later?
• What is the narrators proposed solution? What might that mean in the case of Revelation?

*Stop here - we will pick up in class*

Abravanel, a Spanish bible commentator who was expelled from Spain in 1492, asked the following question, "Who gave the generation of the wilderness which stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai the power of obligating all those who would arise after them to accept the implications of their statement 'we shall do and hearken!' (נעשה ונשמע)

He answered by saying that just as a child has to pay the parent's debts after their death, so too do the future generations (us) have to fulfill the obligation made by the generation who stood at Sinai.

• Do you agree with Abravanel's answer?
• How would you answer the question?
• If we were to agree with Abravanel's opinion, would we need to accept the Torah ourselves or was it already done for us?
• Would there be a reason that we would want to receive and accept the Torah ourselves even though we were included in the original covenant?

Back to the Photograph

Thinking about the texts that you have studied and the questions that you have considered, what new insights do you have into the photograph? How does the photograph relate to the idea of receiving and accepting the Torah?