There was a recent article in the NY Times about how most Americans failed a basic test on religion, and were not even able to answer questions about their own faith correctly. Interestingly enough, the group that scored the highest on this religion test were Atheists! The second highest group of scorers were Jews (though 43% of Jews did not know that the Rambam was Jewish). I thought this article was very appropriate to read before Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah is when we celebrate how we have finished reading all of חמישה חומשי תורה and renew our commitment to לימוד תורה . Perhaps this article can prompt us to ask ourselves some questions. How well would we all do on a Jewish religion test? What are our goals in learning Torah and finding out more about our religion (Rav Sa'adia Gaon in Sefer Emunot ve'De'ot explains that it is so that we can make our religion our own, as well as be able to refute those who challenge it)? Are we comfortable with the amount of Torah that we know or do we want to know more? What goals in לימוד תורה do we want to set for ourselves for the upcoming year?
You can link to the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?_r=3&src=mv&ref=homepage
Chag Sameach!
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