Rav Wein comments that “many of our day school and yeshivah graduates are not very literate in Hebrew language, know little Nach, are unexcited by the study of Mishnah and Talmud and are therefore in jeopardy of becoming children at risk. Though the problem is widespread and well known to all in the educational field and certainly to the parents of these children, it is not widely discussed in terms of curriculum emphasis and adaptation.”
The ensuing thread went on at length about the validity or lack thereof of medrashim that are taught instead of pshat, but there was no discussion of how to teach the basic skills that empower student independence and feed inspiration the lack of which R. Wein laments. There has been no discussion as to enumerating what are the core skills that students need in order to establish independence. We may or may not agree to teach Rivka’s age when she married, but can we agree that textual skills should be taught and reviewed and rereviewed so that 8th graders (still?) know how to independently read and identify the verb, subject and object of a phrase? Can we agree that students should learn to create an outline of Chumash parshios both as a learning device and as prep for that same skill in analyzing the shakla vetarya of Gemara? Can we agree that students should have a long-term sense of the story timeline so as to ask about the timing of Lekh lekha and berit bein habetarim?
Chinuch, we all know, is defined by Rashi as preparing students for their eventual function as adults. Let’s stop telling our students what we know about Torah and start teaching each other how to give students the tools so they can tell us what they know about Torah. Let’s learn how to create the opportunities for students to discover the gems that we know exist in Torah. As they make those discoveries, they will become excited and inspired by the growing depth of their discoveries.
Rivka’s age is brought in Rashi not as an issue of pshat in Parshas Chayei Sarah, but rather by the way of working out the math of Yitzchak’s age at his marriage in Parshas Toldos. Whether or not the medrash is to be taken literally is irrelevant. The review of the details from past psukim, however, is precious. Challenge your students to derive Yizchak’s age at marriage – then read the Rashi. If a student asks why we should make a calculation to confirm an explicit verse, we then have the perfect opportunity to exclaim that Rashi works out explicit math repeatedly. “Do you know something Rashi doesn’t!?” Maybe someone will be zocheh to have a student ask, “Why does Yitzchak’s age need to be written in the Torah if we can figure it out on our own?” Then you can point them to the Sifsei Chachamim and discuss what in fact WAS Rashi’s p’shat question here. To keep on the probable grade level, some of the answers may have to be provided rather than read inside, but the challenge to review and apply past information learned is golden.
In Chayei Sarah, it is not her age which is of importance but the depth of her chesed and it can and should be taught as an outgrowth of students’ comprehension of the psukim. Flowchart the psukim. Rivka didn’t give Eliezer and the camels to drink. She gave Eliezer to drink. He drank. Then what? What is a kad? How much water does it hold. Was there any water left over? Etc. We must invite our students to think about what they are reading. This approach can and must be applied to every parsha or else we are wasting our time.
When we learn how to put students at the center of learning and remove ourselves from the center of teaching, we will save many lives and enrich our professions. I believe that this is what R. Wein was writing about.
Starting in February I will be starting a year-long series of free monthly webinars on some of the techniques I feel teachers ought to apply in their classrooms and technologies that may facilitate doing so more effectively. Register at [
teq.com] and please join us.
Rabbi Gershom Tave
Instructional Technology Specialist
Teq
