In the most recent LookJed, Sasson Gabbai asked how to respond to parents who expressed concern about the spiritual dangers involved with sending students to Israel. He specifically referred to the current climate of tension stemming from the alleged involvement of a fringe group of religious youth in the torching death of an Arab family, the response of the Israeli security forces to that incident and the support of those youth by certain elements of the National-Religious community.
My private response to him was very similar to that of Yair Kahn above. The vast majority of the yeshivot/midrashot that attract American high school graduates do not support such activities in word or deed. A responsible parent should be "an educated consumer;" he or she should meet with and interview members of the administration and talk with alumni of the programs that are considerations for their children in order to ascertain that they share similar values.
Since writing that note, I came across an analysis that challenges some of my assumptions. Yair Sheleg [
en.idi.org.il], who writes about the intersection of religion and State in Israel, published an article in Makor Rishon entitled "The Danger of the Exposed Bible." While admitting that these disturbing incidents are not condoned by the mainstream National-Religious community in Israel, he identifies two issues that he believes serve as the catalyst for such behaviors, one of which is directly related to Jewish education.
Sheleg writes (my translation from the original Hebrew): "The return to the study of an 'exposed' Tanakh without the filter of thousands of years of traditional interpretation, has become one of the proud successes of National-Religious education over the past few decades. It is considered to be one of the central differences between National-Religious and Chareidi education. While the Chareidi student does not interact with Tanakh "as is" and knows it only through the lens of the Talmud, Rashi and other commentaries, the National Religious student comes to engage with the Tanakh itself, connecting with the places where the Biblical stories occurred in an attempt to understand the full historical circle encompassing biblical events and their own contemporary experience. This approach had a heart-stirring romanticism to it, but now its dangers have become clear. The exposed Tanakh writes about revenge; the exposed Tanakh commands to have no mercy; the exposed Tanakh calls for the total destruction of Amalek and the nations of Canaan…"
The full article can be accessed (in Hebrew) at [
www.nrg.co.il]
I have studied with may of the teachers who were instrumental in developing this approach to Tanakh study (indeed the very next Lookjed item, below, invites educators to join a focus group to help share this method with educators in the English speaking world) and my experience has been that they deal with the subjects raised by Sheleg in a responsible and appropriate manner. I would be happy to hear about the experience that others have had with this method and whether they perceive danger it its use.
Shalom
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2016 10:17AM by mlb.
