Shalom,
Rabbi Daum poses a set of question about learning mishnah and gemarah that I took a crack once at explaining. He repeated the questions students ask:
<<
Why do we need to know this?
How will it help me in life?
I don't plan on becoming a Rabbi.
My family is not religious, what difference does it make?
Why can't we just learn the end result? Do we have to learn all the arguments?
All the Rabbis seem to do is argue all the time...who cares?
>>
which is really the following question: "I do not care about this material at all. What other benefits do I get from learning it?" which is a reasonable question actually.
In [
ravsak.org] Rabbi Dr. Ira Bedzow and I argue that the most basic secular advantage that Jewish schools with teaching mishnah and gemarah have is that they teach legal thinking and that this legal thinking helps provide valuable life skills that -- for no good reason -- public schools do not teach. Learning law as an intellectual discipline is very valuable and Jewish schools do it very well. The virtues of these skills far transcend their Jewish comment.
(It was also turned into a video lecture at [
www.youtube.com]
Michael Broyde – "Learning Law Young-What Happens When Elementary Schools Teach (Jewish) Law." Michael Broyde compares the lack of law education in secular elementary and high schools with that of Jewish education.)
MJB
Michael J. Broyde
Professor of Law
Emory University School of Law
Atlanta, GA 30322
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2015 07:04AM by mlb.
