Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today. — Phil Connors

My wife and I just re-watched Groundhog Day, the early 90s classic that is still among my Top 10 favorite comedies of all time. And I’m not alone: many filmmakers and critics have gone so far as to call it a perfect movie. Even Harold Ramis, the film’s director, likened repeated viewings of the movie to the reading of Torah:

“One reason Jews respond to the idea is that the Torah is read every year — you start at the same place on the same day,” he said. “The Torah doesn’t change, but every year we read it we are different. Our lives have changed … and you find new meaning in it as we change.”

He laughed. “I’m not comparing ‘Groundhog Day’ to the Torah … but there’s something in it that allows people every time they see it to reconsider where they are in life and question their own habitual behaviors.” – Los Angeles Times

By that reasoning, I’m pretty sure I’m a talmudic scholar by now. So feel free to consider this my D’var Torah. Continue reading →