Commandments and Concerns: Jewish Religious Education in Secular Society

7. Norms Despite Modernity: Explicit Educational Theology

7 Norms Despite Modernity: Explicit Educational Theology EDUCATORS DISCUSS THE TALMUD At the time this chapter was being written, a group of curriculum writers at the Hebrew University's Melton Centre for Jewish Education in the Diaspora, including this author, met frequently to discuss ways of teaching the oral tradition in the Jewish school. Diverse approaches were presented to the group and were analyzed and evaluated by the participants, who represented differing outlooks and variegated educational experience. One evening, a member of our curriculum group, herself an experienced Talmud teacher and educational theoretician, illustrated her orientation by teaching us a sugyah (talmudic issue) that drew on discussions in two tractates of the Babylonian Talmud. The issue was the mandatory recitation of the HalleI (an order of psalms of praise) on joyous festivals and possible reasons why it is not recited on Purim, although it is read on every other holiday that commemorates God's saving acts. Here are some of the points made concerning the passages we studied: • One would expect the recitation of the Hallel to be mandatory on Purim. If its reading is required on Passover, when Israel was delivered "only" from slavery, it should obviously (a fortiori) also be recited on Purim, when Israel was saved from certain death. • One need not recite the Hallel on Purim, since the prophets prescribed the reading of Megillat Esther (the Book of Estber) for that day. The reading of that scroll, being a form of praise to God analogous to the Hallel, makes the recitation of the latter superfluous. 130 Theology ofJewish Education • One does not read the Hallel on Purim, since these psalms mark only salvational events that occurred in the Land of Israel but not those, like Purim, that occurred outside the Land. (In this connection the Talmud raises the question of why, then, the salvation in Egypt deserves to be celebrated by the chanting of the Hanel. One possible answer proposed in the Talmud: that before Israel entered the Land, salvation in other countries could be marked in this way, but not afterward.) • One is obliged to recite the Hailel on Passover but not on Purim because, in the former case the subjugation to Pharaoh ended on the day of Exodus, whereas in the latter case the rule of King Ahasuerus endured. J The educators who participated in this lesson and the ensuing discussion had several interlocked concerns; 1. They wished to understand the text, to comprehend the subject matter. This meant, first of all, that they wished to understand the line of argument (a desire many readers may share). Moreover, if they were less than conversant in talmudic rhetoric, they wished to catch the form of the argument, in which religious norms were deduced from set patterns of exegesis-in which one "learned out" (arrived at) norms from (unaccustomed) modes of legal discussion . 2. They had to find themselves as teachers in this context. They were obliged to measure the degree of relevance, for themselves, of procedures whereby one deduces how and when to recite psalms of praise and of a system of "rules" concerning the equivalence of a narrative (the Book of Esther) to such psalms on a specified occasion. 3. They had to think of the sensibilities ofpupils with regard to this tcxt. It was neccssary for them to evaluate how such a "language," if it were conceded to be intrinsic to Jewish religious tradition and existence, could be conveyed to learners who were not "inside" the language, to whom it appeared incomprehensible and quaint. 4. They had to take the environment into consideration, to decide whether teaching this" language" was worthwhile given the situation of contemporary Jews, what the chances of success might be, and what other contents would have to be sacrificed to give the investment in such Talmud teaching a chance of success. Not surprisingly, therefore, the interchange during tbe lesson and in the subsequent discussion touched on these discrete issues. For example: 1. When the Talmud insists tbat the reading of the Book ofEsther isequivalent to the recitation of the Hallel, does this mean that, in a situation in which Norms Despite Modernity: Explicit Educational Theology 131 no "proper" (parchment) scroll is available, one should therefore recite the Hallel on Purim? This was obviously a subject-matter question, and it led "naturally" to "looking up" the answer in the Mishnah Brora. an authoritative code ofJewish legal practice. (The...