Category: Focus on How We Teach (Fall 2004)

It is clear that the Jewish community has accepted that we are, for better or for worse, tied to the text. While it appears that the first reference to Jews as “People of the Book” turns up in the Quran - an outsider’s description of the Jewish People - at least two recent examinations of contemporary Jewish learning include this terminology in their titles. Moshe Halbertal, professor of philosophy at Hebrew University has recently authored People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority, which examines the canonization of the Torah – both written and “oral” - and what the ascendancy of the text meant for the development of authority and meaning in the Jewish community. Samuel Heilman, Professor of Sociology at Queens College, has examined Daf Yomi (the daily review of a page of Talmud) study in America under the title The People of the Book: Drama, Fellowship, and Religion.

Philosophers and sociologists agree; we are a text-based people. Nowhere is this more evident than in our classrooms.

This issue of Jewish Educational Leadership, How We Teach: Text, Transmission and Tradition grapples with some of the questions that challenge us, as educators, as a result of the Jewish People’s marriage to the Book. Does authority rest with the text, with the teacher, or with both? Is the role of the teacher to facilitate the transmission of the text, to interpret it for the students, or to foster independent interpretation on the part of the students? What are the appropriate educational methodologies that flow from the answers that we give to these questions? For example, should the teacher be the central figure in the classroom, or should he/she activate the students to rely on their own readings and research?

The first section of the journal examines teaching methodology and introduces cooperative learning approaches that encourage group work and peer interaction, shifting the role of the teacher from being the all-knowing voice of authority to the facilitator of the learning experience. Professor Shlomo Sharan offers an overview of different methodologies that fall under the broad category of Cooperative Learning; Dr. Shimon Rapport shares his research on the implementation of such methods in his Judaic Studies classes in England.

Continuing on through this issue, more basic issues are examined. When did the transmission of Jewish law and lore become engraved in the written word? Is this the ideal? Should our schools strive to return to a primordial state of oral transmission – of Torah She’be’al Peh – or has text study become the only true traditional course of study and pedagogy? What should be the role of the teacher in such a process?

These issues are debated in the second section, which focuses on “Orality and Textuality”. Ranging from Zvi Grumet’s historical review of the movement from an oral to a written tradition, to innovative and practical methods of text study, it is evident that there is no clear-cut and ideal method of passing on Jewish values and traditions.

In addition to the above issues in focus, several of our regular features are revisited in this issue. Levi Cooper calls for a reexamination of a classic method of teaching – rote learning - that has fallen out of vogue in general and Jewish education. Eli Kohn returns to these pages with a review of new educational material for the teaching of Chumash, published by the Gesher educational foundation both in print and on the internet.

In past editions of Jewish Educational Leadership we have included a feature entitled “Getting the Discussion Started”, which presented a current issue in education and offered diverse viewpoints by inviting several Jewish educators to offer his or her perspective. In this issue, we are turning to you, our readers, to respond to the issue of “orality and textuality” by inviting you to participate in a webconference on that topic, which will be moderated by some of the authors of articles in this journal. You will find details about the webconference in the journal itself.

Perhaps even more than the philosophers and sociologists, Jewish educators recognize the role that the written word has played in our community. We are the ones who introduce the next generation to the text, its commentaries and supercommentaries. At the same time, we are the ones who act as the human link in the chain of Jewish tradition, transmitting messages in a variety of fashions that transcend the text.

I hope and trust that the discussion of the place of teacher and student, and of text study and oral tradition, that appears in the pages of this journal, challenges you to examine and rethink your own teaching methods, and perhaps share your thoughts by joining us in an ongoing collegial conversation on the topic.

Shalom