Balancing the Force and Torah

Each year we read through the Torah. For many Jews, we know its story better than any other. For many Jews, the Torah is not the text we find the most interest or connection to. Here, we have three purposes.

First, to transfer the analytic skills we use while reading Torah to another beloved set of stories: Star Wars. Each week we will delve into a particular story in the Star Wars Canon and investigate it through a particular thematic lens. With stories whose plots we know well, revisiting them with a particular purpose can allow us to gleam values from them unexpected.

Second, these type of analytical rereadings allow us to come away perhaps, with new perspectives and understandings of what the texts themselves might mean. In the Torah, we may come to terms through these themes with some of the more challenging sections of each parsha. In Star Wars, we may come away with a greater understanding of what bringing a "balance to the Force" means to us, as well as other philosophical and canonical queries the series endows us with.

Lastly, we seek to find connections, or a balance, if you will, between Star Wars and the Torah. Each week, we will investigate the weekly Torah portion through the same lens we did that week's piece of Star Wars. In doing so, we may be able to find connections between the two that allow us to not only understand each more deeply, but to extract incredibly valuable lessons and calls to action for our modern living.

Justice, Justice shall you pursue, and may the Force be with you in doing so. 

I deeply value your comments, suggestions, and input on each subject, so please feel free to provide it for myself and one another.