Dear Dr. Berger:
I want to thank Michael Broyde, Professor of Law, for giving me an opportunity to continue the discussion on including the academic approach to studying Tefila within the Day School Tefila curriculum. Although Professor Broyde couches his challenges to my posting by asking for data, I think that it is clear that he is voting “no†on introducing the academic approach to studying Tefila within the Day School Tefila curriculum.
I want to begin by disputing a conclusion that Professor Broyde draws from my remarks. He interprets five words in my eight paragraph posting as standing for the following : “and that better learning produces a higher number of "still Orthodox" students than schools that have some other curricula.†He had no basis for drawing such a conclusion from the obiter dicta I added in parentheses to the following sentence: “That many alumni of Maimonides still remember much of what they learned in the Beurei Hatefila course (and they are still Orthodox).†I thought my message was clear. Day Schools should not be concerned that using academic methods of study in teaching Tefila may have the effect of turning students away from Orthodoxy. I am not sure on what basis Professor Broyde concluded that the five words I added also stood for the proposition that using academic methods of study produces a higher percentage of Orthodox students. No one can make that argument since Day Schools do not use academic methods of study to teach Jewish Studies courses.
Professor Broyde further challenges me to provide data that teaching Beurei Hatefila at Maimonides School did not cause any students to abandon Orthodoxy. My data consists of the following: During the last thirteen years in which I have been writing and lecturing on Tefila, I have received numerous e-mails from Maimonides alumni supporting my efforts to encourage Day Schools to introduce Beurei Hatefila classes based on Rabbi Wohlgemuth’s method of study. In many of those e-mails, Maimonides alumni bemoan that their own children’s schools are not providing a course in Beurei Hatefila.
I will also note that the impetus for republishing Rabbi Wohlgemuth’s book, A Guide To Jewish Prayer, came from a parent of Maimonides alumni who was concerned that his grandchildren would not have access to Rabbi Wohlgemuth’s book.
I have not undertaken a scientific study of Maimonides alumni to determine how many of them have remained Orthodox and whether the course in Beurei Hatefila turned them away from Orthodoxy. What I can tell you is that Maimonides was a small school when I graduated in 1971. There were only 26 students in my class. With such a small class and school, it has not been difficult to keep apprised of what is going on among our school mates. I have not heard that any of those students had been turned off to Orthodoxy because of the course in Beurei Hatefila.
Let me take this opportunity to add one more thought for schools to ponder in deciding whether to teach Tefila using academic methods of study. It comes from an excerpt from page xiii of Rabbi Wohlgemuth’s book:
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One of the last scholars in Germany was the late Dr. Ismar Elbogen. Although he was a Reform scholar, he was always fair and thorough when he transmitted the Orthodox point of view. His contributions were based on the works of many scholars and are now available in an excellent Hebrew translation, Hatefilah B’Yisrael. Rav Soloveitchik said to me, “Read his books. Study his books. He is very traditional in his approach. He is very clever and he made very valuable contributions to the study of prayer.â€
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For your information, Dr. Elbogen’s book is now available in an English translation published by the Jewish Publication Society.
It is fateful that this discussion is taking place soon after Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press published a collection of twenty-two articles, eighteen in Hebrew and four in English, by the leading academic scholars in the field of Tefila today, in a book entitled: Jewish Prayer-New Perspectives, edited by Professor Uri Urlich. If this posting has raised any curiosity as to what the academic approach to studying Tefila offers, I would suggest that you peruse the articles contained therein.
Abe Katz
Founding Director
The Beurei Hatefila Institute
[
www.beureihatefila.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2016 05:54AM by mlb.
