ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests the intrinsically religious character of lernen. It deals with cultural performance that the matter of spiritual instruction was implicitly raised. There the focus was on the extent to which people can express the spiritual and cultural "truths" of Judaism during lernen. The homily offers what might best be called "spiritual instruction." That is, the information it provides seeks primarily to enrich the religious spirit rather than add to rational intellect. One of the most common explanations offered to account for lernen has been that the participants do so in order to acquire a practical knowledge of the imperatives of Jewish law. For the religious, the experience of lernen is both the fulfillment of the imperatives of faith and their source of support. It is in the nature of a supreme religious act. Nowhere perhaps is this more clearly seen than in the age-old tradition of the tikkun.
