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Last month, for the third time in the last 2-1/2 years, I offered the d'rash (talk) at Torah study. Although my late husband and I joined Congregation Beth El in Berkeley in 1968, my participation in activities and attendance at services had been fitful and erratic. I'd grown up in an almost non-observant family; my husband distanced himself from his Orthodox background. Still, I wanted my three children to be knowledgeable about Judaism. From books they brought home from religious school, I learned the basics.

When a non-Jewish friend said that in her youth she'd considered converting to Judaism, we began the first of many conversations about religion and Judaism. The result was that about three years ago I went to Torah study for the first time.

Now, at almost 80, I've been thrilled to hand the Torah to two granddaughters at their bat mitzvahs. That's when l'dor va dor — "from generation to generation" — took on meaning beyond words.

Continuity, that sense of being a link in the chain of past and future, is something I feel I'm finding throughJewish studies.