Community Magazine August 2006

 ”  16 Community Magazine T he Torah can most accurately be described as a limitless storehouse of information and guide to life, spanning every subject imaginable, from astronomy to zoology and every “ology” in between. This principle is supported by various examples in which “dis- coveries” of modern science can be found in ancient Jewish texts gleaned from the Torah millennia ago. More directly, this point is brought out in a Mishna: Ben Bag Bag said: Delve in it, and delve in it again – for it contains everything. Gaze at it, grow old and weary from it, and never leave it, for there is no greater commodity than it. (Pirkei Avot, 5:22) The author of this Mishna had a very unusual name – Ben Bag Bag (his full name was Rabbi Yochanan Ben Bag Bag). According to Tosafot, Ben Bag Bag was a ger, a convert to Judaism . It is perhaps specifically because of his non-Jewish origins that Ben Bag Bag was able to admonish us to, “delve in it again”. Those who were raised in an observant home have the advantage of being habitu- ated to fulfill the mitzvot from a young age, but they also have the disadvantage that Torah and mitzvot become routine and taken for granted. Coming to the synagogue to pray is not a novelty; studying Torah becomes an everyday, repetitive activity. We need somebody  The word bag, which has the numerical value of five, alludes to the Hebrew let- ter representing that value – the letter hei. Both Avraham and Sarah, who occupied themselves in converting pagans to monotheism, had the letter hei added to their names. This letter was added to the name “Avram” to yield “Avraham,” and to the name “Sarai” to yield “Sarah.” The name “Ben Bag Bag,” then, means “the son of Avraham and Sarah.” As a convert to Judaism, he was considered the son of Avraham and Sarah – the “parents” of converts. According to others, the word bag is an acronym for the term ben geirim – the son of converts. Some commentators claim that “Bag Bag” is an acronym for ben ger, ben giyoret – the son of a male convert, the son of a female convert. Dedicated for the yeshua of the Jews in the land of Israel rabbi eli mansour There is acommonmisconception about the Torah. Some believe that it is a book about the subject of Judaism, others believe that it is a subject in and of itself... Both views are wrong!