does study lead to action?

In 1980 one of my mentors, Rabbi Elliot Dorff, wrote a paper called "Study Leads to Action." The main idea was in the title, and this came from the the Talmud, a collection of rabbinic writing and customs from the first centuries of our time. Unfortunately, it seems to me that study - and the Talmud meant religious study - often just leads to more study.

There's a problem in religious life, and it's a problem I see very often in the Jewish world. I don't know if this problem exists in other communities, and I'd love to hear some comparisons. The first part is that people are entering study as if it were a game. The game has a few variations, but the goals are roughly: show how smart I am and put on a public face that's louder, bolder or just faster than other people's.

But study isn't just talk. We aren't rolling the words of a religious text around our lips like so much expensive wine, to see who can come up with the best description of the wine or compare it to another wine which only they've tasted, and then spit it out. The religious experience, the experience of God, has to be drunk and it has to affect us right down to our bones. Isn't that the best part of wine, too?

Religion, whether in study or in prayer, has to lead to something. Studying the Bible, Talmud, a Hadith, or the church fathers should lead to action. That action might be visible or it might not be. It may be making meals for AIDS patients, reflecting on your relationship with your children, joining the church budget committee, or just feeling calmer in a way that makes us able to be nicer the next morning at work.

Study can't be a substitute for action. When you study with people, you can't each be reflecting on a text without also reflecting on each other. Study (or prayer for that matter) can't be the proxy for intimacy. Religious life craves real intimacy with our study partner, other congregants and God. The ultimate goal of religious life isn't to create a tool for finding God - it's to find God without a tool.