In his essays on the Torah, Rabbi Shai Held asks us: Is it possible to have an unmediated connection with God without being immersed in Torah and mitzvot?  And conversely: Can Torah and mitzvot threaten to become a self-absorbed enterprise emptied of the divine presence?  As he often does, Rabbi Held calls our attention to the dialectic tension at work in this discussion.  We will study his analysis of two major figures in the Tanakh, Rivkah and Ezra, and reflect on the ongoing role of God and Torah in our lives.