Has Aaron Rodgers been learning Torah at his offseason retreat?

“There’s some good books to actually read behind me,” the star quarterback said

Aaron Rodgers, center, on the “Pat McAfee Show.” (Screenshot via ESPN)

By Louis Keene January 11, 2024

Was he reviewing the Ten Plagues? Brushing up on Jewish canon for his next turn on Jeopardy!? Or seeking biblical inspiration for his next comeback?

Aaron Rodgers, the star New York Jets quarterback and erstwhile game show host notorious for his esoteric off-field habits, displayed a bookshelf containing several Jewish volumes during a remote appearance Thursday on an NFL talk show.

Eagle-eyed Jewish viewers of The Pat McAfee Show said the books behind Rodgers included an Artscroll Tanach — the complete Hebrew Bible — and a Chumash Mesoras HaRav, the Pentateuch with commentary by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik.

Rodgers did not say where he was joining from other than “the woods,” and did not expound on the teachings of Soloveitchik, the late lodestar of modern Orthodox belief. But reading the Torah wouldn’t be the craziest thing Rodgers, who is recovering from a torn Achilles he sustained in September, has done in an NFL offseason. Previous Rodgers expeditions have included a four-day darkness retreat and a three-day ayahuasca retreat.

And it’s not like he didn’t notice the books — indeed, he complimented them.

“No darkness here,” Rodgers said with a smile. “You can tell — there’s a lot of light, there’s some good books to actually read behind me. So, we’re not doing that darkness thing anymore.”

(That plague doesn’t hit Egypt until next week’s Torah portion.)

Update: Twitter sleuths have come up with a possible answer:

Folks, the answer is very Aaron Rodgers. I knew Rodgers had a guru, Aubrey Marcus, known for "darkness retreats." Marcus has interest in Jewish mysticism. But who's Marcus's Jewish guru? Marc Gafni (uh google him). @mpershan found Gafni's library and well: https://t.co/HFt6gGFuel pic.twitter.com/5OADhj1vXG

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) January 11, 2024

Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.

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