When addressing morally complex Tanakh texts, middle school educators face the dual challenge of maintaining textual integrity while fostering meaningful student engagement. To meet this challenge, we have introduced “Communities of Inquiry” (CoI), a pedagogical approach rooted in the Philosophy for Children (P4C) movement. These collaborative learning environments allow students and teachers to explore ideas, questions, and ethical dilemmas that arise from complex Tanakh passages.

In this framework, students engage in “doing philosophy”—not as an academic discipline, but as a way of thinking that deepens their connection to Tanakh and to the broader human experience.

This approach emphasizes philosophy as an active, practice-based discipline. It departs from traditional learning models by focusing on intellectual effort, curiosity, and the pursuit of real-life relevance. The process begins with wonder and puzzlement—an invitation to think deeply and make sense of difficult issues. As Abraham Joshua Heschel noted, “Philosophy is the art of asking the right questions.”

A key element of the P4C approach is the Community of Inquiry, which is especially effective for engaging with “troubling texts.” These classroom communities create a supportive space for teachers and students to share diverse perspectives and collaboratively develop rich interpretations. The CoI facilitates meaningful student interaction by establishing structured dialogue where participants build upon each other’s ideas rather than simply debating opposing viewpoints. Students learn to listen actively to their peers, ask clarifying questions that deepen understanding, and practice respectful disagreement that strengthens, rather than fragments, the learning community. Through this collaborative process, learners develop both critical thinking skills and social competencies as they navigate complex ideas together in a safe, intellectually stimulating environment. Currently used in Jewish schools across various countries, this approach offers significant educational benefits as well as challenges, which we explore through findings from classroom implementation.

Core Goals of the CoI Approach

• Meaningful Text Engagement: Foster a personal connection with the text to drive deeper understanding and investment.
• Skill Development: Equip students with tools and strategies for interpreting complex texts.
• Community Participation: Encourage collaborative learning by contributing and learning from teachers and peers.
• Interpretive Confidence: Build the self-assurance needed to offer well-supported interpretations, and the readiness to share with others.

We illustrate this method using Genesis 16—a “troubling text” that raises moral complexities for middle school students. The ancient Near Eastern practice of surrogate motherhood through servants is foreign to contemporary students. Without proper contextualization, students may either dismiss the story as irrelevant or apply modern standards anachronistically. The text presents genuine moral dilemmas with no clear resolution. Sarai’s desperation for children leads her to offer Hagar to Avram, but she later treats Hagar harshly when tensions arise. Avram’s role in this situation also raises questions about his relationships with both Sarai and Hagar, as well as his responsibility toward Hagar and her unborn child. Hagar’s decision to flee to the desert provides another important topic for discussion. Rabbinic commentators grapple with these dilemmas in diverse and often contradictory ways, providing a rich ground for both textual and moral exploration. Some critique Sarai and Avram’s harsh behavior, while others defend their actions as necessary to preserve the covenantal lineage.

In examining this text, teachers must help students understand concepts like patriarchal family structures, the centrality of offspring for inheritance and divine covenant, the role of servants in ancient households, and status differences between servants and their masters.

The Community of Inquiry Cycle

The CoI model is comprised of five steps. We will now demonstrate how they can be implemented in teaching Genesis 16 and explain the rationale for each step.

1. Engaging Exercise

Each CoI begins with an activity designed to connect students personally with a central theme from the text. For Genesis 16, examples include the following dilemmas:

• Dilemma A: Avram is caught in a quarrel between Sarai and Hagar. Students reflect on times they were caught in disagreements between two people or groups they care about. What solutions did they consider? How did they handle it? What were the outcomes?
• Dilemma B: Hagar chooses to leave. Students discuss reasons for leaving difficult situations and the difference between “running from” and “going to.”

2. Posing Questions

After reading the text, students note two meaningful questions that arise for them. These are posted anonymously or with their names on a Padlet. This promotes individual reflection and collective curiosity as students share which questions are meaningful for them, and in addition, those that resonate among their peers.

Typical questions that students have shared include:

• Why was Sarai angry at Avram in verse 5? After all, it was her idea.
• What did Sarai mean when she said that “God will judge between her and Avram”?
• Didn’t Avram realize that Sarai’s plan would cause trouble?

3. Linking Questions

Students review all posted questions, identifying patterns and grouping them into thematic clusters. They also name these clusters. This process promotes creative thinking, cognitive mapping, and appreciation for diverse viewpoints. As students examine the collection of questions, they notice unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated inquiries, fostering systems thinking and interdisciplinary awareness. The act of naming clusters requires students to synthesize complex ideas into concise labels, developing their ability to abstract and categorize information effectively.

Through this collaborative analysis, students often discover that their individual questions contribute to larger, shared areas of interest, creating a sense of intellectual community. The visual representation of clustered questions serves as a powerful learning tool, helping students recognize knowledge gaps and identify areas for deeper exploration.

Examples of linking questions for our text include:

• How do we understand Avram’s and Sarai’s behavior?
• What other options did Hagar have for responding to Sarai’s treatment?
• What responsibilities did masters have toward their servants?

This metacognitive exercise transforms simple question-asking into a sophisticated tool for understanding how knowledge is organized and interconnected.

4. Meaning-Making

Meaning-making in this approach operates through a three-stage process that transforms students from passive readers into active interpreters and raises issues that are relevant and meaningful for their lives.

1. First, the teacher presents a textual dilemma—a passage posing a challenge, which by its very nature will often generate rich interpretive possibilities. In our example, students encounter the complex relationship between Sarai, Hagar, and Avram through multiple lenses:
   • Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, in Haketav Vehakabalah, defends Sarai’s harsh treatment of Hagar by arguing it was justified corrective discipline rather than cruelty. He claims that Hagar became “pompous and acting in a bad way” after conceiving Avram’s child, showing disrespect toward Sarai. Sarai’s harsh treatment was therefore done with a “just purpose”—to bring Hagar back to her proper place and help her understand her role in the household. He characterizes Hagar as lacking moral strength for fleeing rather than accepting this correction.
   • Ramban’s commentary on Genesis 16:6 takes a notably critical stance, stating that “Our mother sinned in afflicting her, and Avram also by his permitting her to do so.” This represents Ramban’s characteristic approach of moral accountability for the patriarchs and matriarchs. His interpretation emphasizes the moral complexity of the situation, refusing to excuse Sarai’s harsh treatment of Hagar despite understanding her motivations.
   • Nehama Leibowitz first presents Haketav Vehakabalah’s commentary and then argues that, “No appraisal of Sarai’s character could condone the sin of ‘Sarai dealt harshly with her.’” She suggests the Torah teaches that before undertaking morally demanding missions, one should consider whether high standards can be maintained throughout, lest one “descend from the pinnacle of altruism and selflessness into much deeper depths.”
2. Second, small group discussions become laboratories for meaning construction. Students don’t simply absorb these interpretations, but actively test them against their own experiences and values. They debate which readings feel most compelling and explore how ancient and modern insights illuminate contemporary moral questions.
3. Finally, creative presentations require students to synthesize and express their understanding. Whether through skits, artwork, or digital presentations, the students translate abstract interpretive concepts into concrete forms that communicate their insights to others. This creative process itself generates new meaning as students make choices about emphasis, perspective, and medium.

The meaning-making step recognizes that textual meaning isn’t fixed, but emerges through dynamic interaction between text, tradition, and reader. Students become participants in an ongoing interpretive conversation, creating understanding that honors both classical wisdom and contemporary relevance.

5. Reflection

In the final stage, students reflect individually and collectively on their learning experience:

1. The original Padlet questions are revisited, and students vote digitally on the two most meaningful ones. One of these becomes the focus of a future lesson, reinforcing student agency and emphasizing their role as key stakeholders in the learning process. Revisiting their original questions encourages students to once again reflect on how the classroom conversations have impacted and shaped their learning experience.
2. Students submit digital reflections on their key takeaways, strengthening the link between text and personal relevance.
3. A group discussion follows on the learning process itself: what worked, what was challenging, and how it could be improved.

Conclusion

The CoI approach fosters a classroom culture grounded in textual interpretation, intellectual curiosity, and shared responsibility for meaning-making. This collaborative framework proves particularly valuable when teachers encounter challenging passages in the Tanakh—whether they involve moral ambiguity, difficult theological concepts, or narratives that seem to conflict with contemporary values. Rather than avoiding these complex texts or presenting oversimplified interpretations, the CoI approach empowers teachers to embrace the difficulty as an opportunity for deeper learning. When students encounter troubling passages or raise challenging questions, teachers can model intellectual honesty by acknowledging the complexity while guiding students through a structured process of inquiry. This approach transforms potentially challenging teaching moments into rich learning experiences, as teachers demonstrate that wrestling with difficult questions is itself a fundamental aspect of Jewish textual study.

Furthermore, the CoI framework expands the teacher’s role beyond simply sharing knowledge and introducing textual skills. The educator now facilitates thoughtful dialogue and transforms students from passive recipients into active co-creators of understanding. When navigating difficult texts, teachers using this approach don’t need to have all the answers immediately. Instead, they can facilitate genuine inquiry by asking probing questions, encouraging students to examine multiple interpretations, and creating space for authentic learning. This collaborative exploration helps students understand that engaging with challenging material requires careful thinking, an openness to exploring a range of explanations, and intellectual courage—lessons that extend far beyond the classroom. Many teachers report that by sharing the interpretive process with their students, they create a learning environment where difficult questions become gateways to deeper understanding rather than obstacles to overcome.

Finally, this transformation supports not only deeper Tanakh learning, but also the development of essential habits of mind—such as active listening, openness to multiple interpretations, and the ability to respectfully challenge and be challenged. When confronting morally complex narratives or seemingly contradictory passages, middle school students learn to sit with ambiguity, consider multiple perspectives, and engage in respectful disagreement. These skills prove invaluable when teachers guide students through particularly sensitive or controversial texts, as the collaborative inquiry process teaches students to approach difficult material with both intellectual rigor and emotional maturity. By grappling with the moral complexity of the Tanakh, middle school students are better prepared to apply these skills to navigate the ethical dimensions of their own lives and communities. In this way, Tanakh study cultivates not only more engaged students, but more reflective, compassionate, and discerning Jewish learners who are equipped to wrestle thoughtfully with life’s most challenging questions.