How I Became an Accidental Talmudist

This week marks the seventh anniversary of an errand that changed my life.

On March 2, 2005, I went to The Mitzvah Store on Pico Boulevard in order to buy a book. I was in my seventh year of being a practicing Jew — a practice I call Reform Chasidic — and I had probably visited the shop a dozen times. After finding the needed book, I glanced over at the shelves of Talmud. Every set looked like three Encyclopedia Britannicas and, as usual, I was totally intimidated.