Learning Isaiah

With each half-year, I set for myself a variety of projects to pursue for the upcoming six months knowing in advance that few will be completed in the absence of a deadline controlled by external forces.  They include upgrades to my home, my health and my mind, numbering from 6-12 each semi-annual block.  Been a little too casual with my own Jewish study of late, not accessing www.yutorah.org nearly as much as I once did.  So I set aside some reading for myself, two literature classics, Book of Isaiah and one of the Minor Prophets to be determined later.  www.yutorah.org has podcasts of their classes which include lectures on these for their Rabbinical students so a good approach might be to read a chapter or two at a time, then listen to the corresponding lecture from one of the courses.  It will take most of the six months to get through all 66 chapters.  About half the Haftarot come from Isaiah so it's probably the book to study if I want to make myself a little more active in Jewish study than I have been.  Carving out the time should not be difficult as I piddle enough time on Facebook each evening to get through a text chapter instead, though the podcasts will probably take more time.

I think there is a pent up demand for serious Jewish study, looking at the seemingly endless offerings in cyberspace and the dedicated subscribers to major projects like Daf Yomi or a multiyear survey of Mishneh Torah being led by one of the outstanding Rabbis at a regional congregation.  But everyone actively engaged in stuff like this, there is also a popularity to the spoon feeding of stuff like Aliyah Sound Bites that come one's way passively and no doubt last as long as they took to impart.  Fortunately, I think the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward substance.  I need to be a little more engaged in that favorable trend.