5 Elul 5778
16 August 2018

Coming Home: “A Portion of Torah That Is Ours”

Once there was a prince who sailed to faraway countries.
Many years passed, and at last the prince thought of coming back.
For a moment he felt shame:
he had been away so long;
so much time had passed since he last saw his home.
Then he said to himself: I must not be ashamed to come back.
After all, it is to my own ancestral property that I return.
So it is with us:
no matter how far we have wandered from the Torah,
it remains our own possession.

For Scripture says: “Moses charged us with this Teaching
as the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.”
Each of us has our own portion of the Torah; it belongs to us.
And when we take up the study of Torah,
we are coming home. 

based on Midrash Sifrei D’varim 345 (RH page 45)
- Rabbi Janet Marder and Rabbi Sheldon Marder

Supplementary reading from our new machzor Miskhan T'shuvah, which will be introduced in 2019