The Larchmont Chevra Torah meets with the rabbis every Saturday at 9.00 am in the Grant Conference Center to discuss a section of the par'shah of the week using the PaRDeS method of study, seeking the underlying meaning for our contemporary society.

Pshat...Reading/hearing the  story on the surface--WHERE our Journey Starts
Our relationship with Torah is one of mutuality...The text is luminous. but to shine forth it equires the application of the reader's mind and heart--both of them bring light.

Prof. Aryeh Newman

Remez...Looking for Commentary/Clues--WHAT the Sages Teach
The beginning of knowing about God is simply paying attention, being fully present where you are, or as Rashi suggests, simply waking up...We do not see what is happing all around us. For most of us, most of the time, the lights are on but nobody's home....

Right now for instance you are a reader. You are consuming Torah's words and the ideas they bear. But suppose you were a typographer, then you would also notice the shapes of the letter. Suppose you were a poet. A paper manufacturer. A Blind person. A composer. We find what we seek. and we seek who we are.

R'Larry Kuschner..(from God Was in This Place and I Did not know it)

Drash...Discovering New Direction/Meaning--WHERE the "Modern"  Interpreters Lead
The Bible is not holy because it is the final word but because it is the first word of an unending tradition...Revelation is the dialogue of reciprocal covenant, ongoing process of listening and interpreting, of receiving and giving...Revelation must then be filtered through conscience which is the responsibility of every person who claims to hear the commanding voice.

R'Harold Schulweis

Sod...Finding our Footsteps---HOW Torah Guides/Informs our Journey Today
Each person has a Torah, Unique to that person, his or her innermost teaching. Some seem to know their Torahs very early in life...Others spend there whole lives stammering, shaping and rehearsing them. Some are long, some are short. Some are intricate and poetic, others are only a few words, and still others can only be spoken through example. But every soul has a Torah. To hear another say Torah is a precious gift. For each soul, by the time of his or her final hour, the Torah is complete...Now God has a Torah too. But God's Torah is beyond lifetimes...beyond words. It is only the sound of being itself, the Name of God....

Ultimately, as our understanding of and the devotion to the scroll of Torah develop, our own individual Torah increasingly resemble God's. But a person need not wait until his or her final moment. There is another way. It is called Teshuvah, letting go of one's old self, returning again to one's Source. When we make Teshuvah we remember the Source of our innermost selves and our purpose in Creation. We are renewed---as in days of old.

R'Larry Kuschner..(from God Was in This Place and I Did not know it)
     

 "One needs to make Teshuva as an act of preparation in order to study Torah"
                                                                     The Sear of Lublin