Occupation? How often we see this question on a form, whether applying for a mortgage or sitting in a doctor's waiting room. So what is our occupation? Occupation is a multifaceted word, whose meanings include: seizing possession (as in, The German occupation of Poland), and taking up time (as in, the lecture occupied three hours). Most of us correctly assume that the answer to the question on the form is not what foreign country we are currently residing in, but rather what is our job.

I doubt that many (or any) of you fill in the space on the form with the words, Torah Scholar. But if you did, you wouldn't be wrong. In the book (which became a movie), Catch Me if you Can, Frank Abagnale describes how, as a teenager, he passed himself off as an airline pilot and a physician, among other deceptions. But I don't mean to suggest that you too can claim to be something you are not. You really can be a Torah scholar, if only for a few minutes each day.

Each morning, even before the public service begins in the synagogue, each of us is called upon to say a number of blessings. Among those is a declaration that God has commanded us to occupy ourselves in the words of Torah. The Hebrew expression is la'asok b'divrei Torah. We don't say: to read Torah, to listen to Torah, or even to study Torah, but rather to occupy ourselves in Torah.

So as not to make us liars, or recite a blessing with God's Name for no purpose, this blessing (and two others) is followed by selections from both the Written and Oral Torahs. The daily Oral Torah lesson from the Mishna reminds us that there are Mitzvot which do not have a required "dosage."

Many of the mitzvot must be done in a very specific way. The number of parchments inside the tefillin, the components of the lulav/etrog on Sukkot, and the order of the prayers are but a few examples. On the other hand there are some non-specific mitzvot. Among them, which we remind ourselves each morning, is the Mitzvah of Torah Study. That is to say, while we are required to participate daily in Torah study, the details are left to us to determine.

So, as a minimum, one has the opportunity each morning to recite the blessing reminding us of our obligation to engage in Torah, and then a further opportunity to learn, and re-learn, a small sampling of the Torah's wisdom. And for a few minutes each morning, you can be a Torah scholar.